A whirlwind week has seen the England men’s team go from the leadership of a once untroubled interim manager to the appointment of serial winner Thomas Tuchel as their permanent head coach, for an 18-month period from January 2025 until the summer of 2026.
The speed at which the story developed, with very few leaks until news started to break on Tuesday, surprised many.
Through a combination of BBC sources, interviews and news conferences, we’ve pulled together what we’ve learned about the process that led the Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham to announce Tuchel as “the best candidate for the job” to give England the “best chance of winning the 2026 World Cup”.
Tuchel told the BBC the FA first approached him in late August.
Tuchel signed his contract on Tuesday, 8 October – two days before England’s surprise defeat by Greece sparked fresh speculation about the permanent manager position and the recruitment process.
At a similar time, before the Greece game, a senior FA source told the BBC the recruitment process was “going well”.
Sources told the BBC Bullingham led a 30-minute call to the FA board on 8 October to inform them Tuchel was ready to sign.
Bullingham has said “approximately 10” candidates were spoken to, including English coaches, but we have been told the board members were not informed of any other potential candidates.
The Tuchel news did not start to leak until Tuesday, 15 October, with some media reports still speculating over an approach to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on Tuesday morning.
Two sources told the BBC the FA did make an approach to Guardiola earlier in the summer.
Both Tuchel and Bullingham said the “confidential process” involved only them and FA technical director John McDermott, who met with Tuchel in Munich.
BBC Sport has been told by sources the short, “focused” 18-month project idea was driven by Tuchel.
The job advert published in July said the FA wanted someone with “significant experience of English football, with a strong track record delivering results in the Premier League and/or leading international competitions”.
That appeared to leave the door open for Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, former Brighton and Chelsea head coach Graham Potter and U21 European Championship-winning boss Lee Carsley. But with the FA always making clear it was open to appointing a foreign manager, the feeling was a big international name was the preferred option.
The reality is there are only three English head coaches in the Premier League, plus out-of-work Potter. The homegrown choices were limited.
Questions have been asked of what Tuchel’s appointment means for the St George’s Park pathway of developing young British coaches, and whether there is a shortage of elite managers.
Bullingham put it simply: “We wanted to get the very best for the job”.
There had been conflicting media reports around the process of recruiting Gareth Southgate’s successor. The FA was not guiding journalists either way on specific candidates, which meant speculative reports were published without any official comment from the FA.
Tuchel told the BBC the FA first approached him in late August.
Until very recently there had been a sense the FA was in no rush to name a replacement for Southgate, with interim Carsley in place for the autumn Nations League matches, and World Cup qualifying not starting until March.
Indeed, there were some reports within the past fortnight that Bullingham and McDermott – who led the recruitment process – had not even spoken to potential candidates such as Howe, Potter and Jurgen Klopp.
When pressed by BBC Sport at Thursday’s news conference at Wembley, Bullingham said “approximately 10 people”, including “English candidates”, were interviewed.
Potter has given nothing away in recent TV appearances and Newcastle boss Howe may well be asked about the England job at his Friday news conference.
Earlier in the week – just before Tuchel’s FA talks were reported – BBC Sport was told by two sources that the FA did make an approach to Guardiola earlier in the summer. Both Manchester City and the FA declined to comment.
Former Newcastle striker and BBC pundit Alan Shearer told Radio 5 live that he understood there was no approach to Howe.
Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker told the Rest is Football podcast he understood the FA had spoken to Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. BBC Sport has not been able to verify either claim.
It is hard to know what chance of the job any English candidates had. But Bullingham told us “any federation will always want to look at an appointment like this and have a really strong candidate pool of five to 10 domestic candidates who are winning trophies at both club and international level. We’re not in that position at the moment. We’ve got a really strong talent pipeline of young coaches. What’s important is they get the opportunities to prove their worth.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s football correspondent John Murray, Bullingham said the FA “did a lot of work before the Euros” to identify “the ideal characteristic and profile of an England manager” to help them try to win a tournament, and that Tuchel “fitted that really well”.
Sources have told BBC Sport that McDermott met Tuchel in Munich before a second meeting with Bullingham.
Bullingham said Tuchel was “always on our target list” and so they made a “proactive approach to speak to him”.
Tuchel said the “idea” was presented by McDermott and Bullingham “very fast, [and] confidential” and in a “very straightforward” way.
At that point, the FA was still speaking to other people “in the industry”, Bullingham said.
Bullingham added: “He [Tuchel] was outstanding, he gave a really strong presentation, outlined how he felt he could help us win and the chemistry felt really good, and we concluded the partnership quite soon after that.”
Sources have told BBC Sport that there was a real sense of keeping it personal between a group of four and to limit the chat over messages.
