FA brutally told they’ve ruined their St George’s Park legacy in ‘one fell swoop’ with appointment of Thomas Tuchel as ex-England boss claims homegrown coaches have been ‘let down’

Gareth Southgate stepped down as England boss following the Three Lions’ Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain in Berlin earlier this year, and the Football Association (FA) soon began their search for his successor as England U21 boss Lee Carsley was appointed as the interim coach. Last month, the FA announced that former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss Tuchel would be taking over the reins in preparation for the 2026 World Cup, making him only the third non-English head coach to take charge of the national team.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Former Three Lions boss Allardyce has now criticized the FA for appointing a foreign coach as the national team’s manager and claimed that they have tarnished their legacy by not trusting an English coach to be able to serve instead of Tuchel. The 70-year-old took on the FA by claiming they had not stayed true to the beliefs they had when starting St. George’s Park in 2012, which was used as a development centre for English coaches to serve as a pathway towards becoming coach of the Three Lions, while also serving as a preparation ground for all of the England national football teams.
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  WHAT ALLARDYCE SAID

  Speaking to Betfair, Allardyce said: “The FA have let the coaches down, and I’ll tell you why. When I joined England for the short period that I did, sadly for me, they knew what they were trying to do was, infrastructure-wise, move everybody to St. George’s Park, which they did. If you didn’t move to St. George’s Park, you lost your job, and the whole infrastructure of St. George’s Park was put in place right the way through to senior level, which was very exciting for me and I thought was an absolutely brilliant idea.

  “Now you’ve seen that just eroded in one fell swoop, because it was there to bring on and develop all coaches at all levels in the future, to bring English coaches through to manage the national team in the end. But it’s very, very difficult because I’m a massive lover of the Premier League, and always have been for the life and opportunity it’s given me to be a manager there. But there’s four [British] managers, I think. There’s only, I think, three British owners, which is West Ham, Crystal Palace and Brighton.

  “Last but not least, Wolves have been playing for a lot of the season with no English players in the team. So it shows that while the Premier League is the best league in the world, and I’ve had a fantastic time doing, from a British point of view, being an elite coach, if you’re dealing with foreign owners, foreign directors, foreign chief executives and a foreign director football, you’re rarely going to get a chance. That’s the downside. The upside is it’s brought millions and millions and millions into the game. But if you’re trying to be an elite coach in England, as an Englishman, it’s more difficult than anywhere else.”

  WHAT NEXT FOR ENGLAND?

  With Tuchel not set to take over as England boss until the start of 2025, Carsley remains the head coach of the Three Lions for their last two clashes of the Nations League group stages as they are set to take on Greece on Thursday, November 14 before facing Ireland on Sunday, November 17.