IT’S OH SO QUIET
Not a lot of people know this, but Brian Clough never managed the England football team. Despite winning two Bigger Cups, two league titles and a few Milk Cups, Clough was overlooked for Big Job, largely because the prevailing blazers were terrified of his unyielding attitude regarding the administration of home truths. Clough as England manager is one of football’s great what-ifs. We’ll never know, no matter how many times it comes up on the Stick to Football podcast, but Thomas Tuchel is starting to give us a glimpse into what it might have been like.
We know these are different times. Tuchel will never rock a green jumper, and we’re not expecting him to stroll on to the field and start panelling his own fans like Clough once did. But he shares Clough’s disdain for the veneers and unchallenged horse pucky that are fundamental to the preservation of football’s warped self-image. And he has a powerful urge to say the unsayable. Never mind empowering the Three Lions; so far Tuchel has spent his time slaying sacred cows. Not content with calling out – and leaving out – many of his star players, or challenging the media on their sometimes infantile interpretation on his decisions, Tuchel turned his attention to England’s supporters after Thursday’s 3-0 win over Wales.
“The stadium was silent,” he said. “Silent. We never got any energy back from the stands. What more can you give [the fans]? Twenty minutes, three goals. The way we attacked Wales and we didn’t let them escape. If you hear for half an hour [it was] just Wales fans. It’s a bit sad because I think the team deserved big support.” It’s not simply the case that football support was better in the olden days – a cherubic Football Daily was one of only 21,342 who turned up at Wembley to watch Paul Gascoigne book his place in England’s Italia 90 XI, never mind the squad, in a 4-2 win over Czechoslovakia in 1990, and yes this aside is essentially just a gratuitous assertion of our authenticity – but in a broader sense it’s hard to argue there are more libraries in English football than ever before. It doesn’t help that the England supporter songbook could be printed on a few A6 pages, or that the most popular songs aren’t about football anyway.
Tuchel’s reluctance to play politics is extremely refreshing – and pretty risky, because it won’t take much for people to turn on a German. It’s barely a month, after all, since the majority were affronted by England’s inability to put a gazillion past Andorra. Tuchel is both exceedingly smart and occasionally spiky – it’s hard to be certain which is behind his unorthodox decision to set up an industrial feather-ruffler in the bowels of Wembley Stadium. Given the decisive matches of his reign will be played in America, the risk:reward ratio for the criticism felt less favourable than the still controversial decision to reward players based on performance rather than popularity or status. Tuchel’s radical honesty has at least enlivened what would otherwise be an interminable lead-in to the World Cup. And though the reality is more nuanced, its success or otherwise will be determined by England’s results next summer. One way or another, when the final whistle is blown in England’s final World Cup game, their supporters will not be silent.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I knew I could throw the ball a long way when I started playing at eight years old. You can increase distances over time but it’s a little bit genetic. My youngest son, Ellis, who’s just turned 20, can throw it a fair old way” – long-throw pioneer Dave Challinor gets his chat on with Will Unwin and salutes the return of the successful launch.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I demand a stewards’ review of the decision on yesterday’s letter winner. Mr Davies’s ‘tale’ is ‘interesting’ but fails to stand up under scrutiny. The match in question attracted a crowd of only 18,629. The capacity of The Hawthorns in 1985 was just under double that figure. There was never a need to plan an ‘unauthorised entry’ for this game. Attendances were in steep decline in this decade. West Brom’s average gate in 1985-86 was 12,164; Villa’s was 15,237. The lock out one hour before kick off was never going to happen. Surely therefore a case of ‘false memory syndrome’ on the part of Mr Davies? Yours in the spirit of Noble Francis” – Richard Worrall.
If Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe has never been given a free lunch in 50 years in the corporate world (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs – full email edition) then he must be even more unpopular there than he is in football” – Ian Casson.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day prize is … Richard Worrall (though Tony Davies does have the right to reply), who gets some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, are here.
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• This article was amended on 10 October 2025. An earlier version said that Brian Clough had won only one league title. In fact, he won two: one with Derby County and one with Nottingham Forest.
