English managers 'more than capable' of handling national team, claims Southampton boss

SOUTHAMPTON - Manager Russell Martin expressed his belief on Oct 17 that there are numerous English coaches who have the capabilities to lead the England national team, following the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as the new manager.

The German, a former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss, was unveiled on Oct 16 and will start his new job on January 1.

The 51-year-old succeeds Gareth Southgate as permanent coach and becomes the third foreign England manager after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said English coaches were interviewed, but England were “not in that place” to have several homegrown contenders for the national team job.

Former Manchester United captain and England defender Gary Neville admitted on that Tuchel was the “best available manager in the world”.

But he added: “We are damaging ourselves accepting Tuchel is better than any of the other English coaches. We are in a rut when it comes to English coaching.”

Neville’s former United and England team-mate Wayne Rooney, now in charge of second-tier Plymouth, was taken aback by the Tuchel move.

“He’s a very good coach but I’m surprised the FA have employed him,” said Rooney, who won 120 caps and scored 53 goals for England.

“What the FA have built has been a great platform for young coaches coming through, so I’m surprised they haven’t gone with one of their own.

“But, as I said, they have made the decision and I wish him all the best and I hope he does well for us.”

Southampton boss Martin, whose team were promoted to the Premier League in May, described Tuchel as a “brilliant” manager but said there were few opportunities for homegrown coaches.

“There are loads of English coaches really capable of doing the job as well,” said former Scotland international Martin ahead of his team’s Premier League match against Leicester on Saturday.

“English managers – really difficult to get the opportunity to manage in the Premier League unless you take a team there a lot of the time.

“Maybe English managers are not given enough credit or maybe they’re deemed not good enough by the most important people.

“I hope at some point it will be really obvious that there are lots of really good English managers around that are capable of doing it.”