It is literally impossible for the England ‘focus’ to be on anything other than the fan ‘backlash’ at Thomas Tuchel even after qualifying for the World Cup.
Fan service
In perhaps the most predictable turn of events in recorded human history, the nature of England’s successful World Cup qualifying campaign has led to a wider media desire to lament how the achievement was overshadowed by a ‘major backlash’.
Some of those in the media, as ever, collectively and wilfully forget that they are very much in control of whether that happens. Or, more pertinently, whether they want to pretend that happened.
‘England destroy Latvia and qualify for World Cup despite Thomas Tuchel backlash’ is, for example, an unimprovable headline effort from the Daily Telegraph. That ‘despite’ is a work of art in its premise and execution. Are we supposed to believe that Harry Kane was going to be rattled by a couple thousand England supporters aiming some remarkably gentle ribbing at the manager? Or that FIFA would ban them from the tournament for swearing a bit?
Jason Burt is obviously the writer in question, having previously described Tuchel’s questioning of the Wembley atmosphere last week as ‘unnecessary and dangerous’.
The key word there, by the way, is ‘Wembley’. His comments on the home crowd during the Wales win were not aimed at those who travelled to Latvia, as underlined by the heavy praise he issued for the support England enjoyed in Serbia.
But back to Burt, who rallied so hard against the ‘potentially dangerous path’ Tuchel ventured down in his criticism. Now he writes:
‘At a time when it should all be about booking that place for next summer’s tournament and dissecting how competitive England will be – and celebrating captain Harry Kane taking his record goals total for his country to a phenomenal 76 in 110 games (now 21 goals ahead of the previous record-holder Wayne Rooney) – instead the focus also fell on Tuchel’s relationship with the fans.’
So focus on something else. It can be all about booking their place at the World Cup if you want it to be. No-one is forcing you to manufacture such a nonsense controversy. You choose what you write about, fella. There are England topics beyond the fans and Jude Bellingham, believe it or not.
Jonathan Northcroft manages it in The Times, touching only briefly on the fan situation to say the ‘messages to Tuchel seemed more playful than pointed’. Because they were.
That will not do for Burt, who is powerless to change where ‘the focus’ goes in his own opinion piece:
‘Maybe it will all just blow over but there was a point being made, time and again, with chants such as “Thomas Tuchel, we’ll sing when we want” and “are we loud enough for you”.’
It already has blown over. It was barely mentioned from about midday after the Wales game until some fans aimed a couple of well-natured digs at Tuchel in Latvia, which the manager himself took in good spirits.
‘Tuchel might laugh it off, might state it is better they chanted about him than a player, but he might also reflect on the wisdom of his criticism.’
He actually just called it “quite creative”, praised “British humour”, said it was “fair enough” and called the support “brilliant”. He didn’t sound in a particularly reflective mood.
‘It all deflected away from England’s achievements as they claimed another 5-0 away win and Kane’s extraordinary exploits.’
Jason Burt there, donning a hot dog costume and vowing to find the guy who allowed what is barely a gust of wind in a teacup to ‘deflect away from England’s achievements’.
It is exceptional work for the Chief Football Correspondent of a national newspaper to dedicate his entire column space to mourning how something almost entirely irrelevant has supposedly taken attention away from England’s excellence, instead of just using that platform to write about England’s excellence.
Chant GPT
It was John Cross who suggested Tuchel faced a ‘major backlash’ on the back page of the Daily Mirror.
He writes that the fans ‘made it clear what they thought as they chanted: “Thomas Tuchel – we’ll sing when we want,” followed by: “Are we loud enough for you?”.
They also chanted “Tuchel, give us a song”, “Tuchel, give us a wave” and “Tuchel’s right, our fans are sh*te” among various other things. The only thing ‘clear’ here is that they were travelling football supporters having some fun.
A right old path
Cross also says that ‘if record breaker Kane is in this sort of form, then England fans can dare to dream and begin to plot a path all the way because their Captain Marvel will take some stopping’.
If that path includes only the teams ranked 137th, 30th, 34th, 174th, 61st and 66th in the world then absolutely fair enough. It does feel as though they might have to face someone slightly better than Latvia at some point though.
England literally lost to Senegal (18th) five months ago. Let’s chill out.
And sure, Captain Marvel ‘will take some stopping’ in this form. But put him in any semi-final or final and it could be a different story.
All Hope is not lost
The MailOnline continue to flog a dead horse, seeing little value in leading on the Tuchel chants but sensing an opportunity in one other song the fans aired.
‘England fans target Gary Neville with x-rated chants after outrage at ‘middle-aged white men’ rant and hit back at Thomas Tuchel’
Well they’ve stopped calling it a ‘racist’ rant so that’s something.
It is interesting to see the fans ‘hit back at Thomas Tuchel’ in a story which describes the chants against the German as ‘barbed’ from a ‘seemingly riled’ travelling support.
Craig Hope was there so he should know. And in his column from the game he quickly brushes past the fan ‘backlash’ which others feel ‘deflected away from England’s achievements’, dedicating a single paragraph to it in which he says:
‘The game was so one-sided that the England fans massed in a stand behind one of the goals began to make fun of themselves after the criticism Tuchel had aimed at the Wembley crowd after England’s victory over Wales last Thursday.’
Someone didn’t get the memo. It was a blast at Tuchel and it’s basically impossible to write about anything else.
No Hope
Hope does write another column wondering ‘where does this all leave Jude Bellingham’ because obviously. At what point do you stop talking about the elephant in the room?
