Thomas Tuchel is set to formally announce his World Cup squad today, though you wouldn’t know it from the morning papers—the cat is well and truly out of the bag. And it’s fair to say the gaffer’s choices are going down like a lead balloon across the country. Don’t expect Ancelotti-levels of theatrical charm at today’s presser; given the leaked reports, the assembled hacks are hardly going to roll out the red carpet or greet him with rapturous applause. We already know the German manager is binning off some massive names before the Three Lions kick off their group stage campaign against Croatia, Ghana, and Panama.
The casualty list dropping at 11 am reads like a who’s who of top-flight talent. Harry Maguire, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Fikayo Tomori, Morgan Gibbs-White, Luke Shaw, Lewis Hall, and Adam Wharton are all missing the plane. It’s sent a proper shockwave through English football this morning. The Mirror hasn’t held back, labelling the decisions “radical and uncompromising,” while pointing out the absolutely staggering recall of Ivan Toney. The bloke hasn’t had a sniff of international football for a year following a bust-up with Tuchel. The BBC hit the nail on the head, noting that even two years ago, the idea of leaving a creative powerhouse duo like Palmer and Foden at home to make room for Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze would have been laughed out of the room.
The Maguire Bombshell
But it’s Maguire’s omission that’s really set the cat among the pigeons. Sky Sports’ Rob Dorsett is frankly gobsmacked. He pointed out the sheer madness of freezing out a centre-half with 66 caps and three major tournaments under his belt, especially after putting in a proper shift for Manchester United and looking imperious against Uruguay. Dorsett reckoned Maguire had nailed down his spot, only for Tuchel to brutally admit he’s just fifth in the pecking order. You have to admire the ruthless honesty, even if the end result is mind-blowing. Toney makes the cut, Maguire doesn’t. Absolute madness.
Over at The Guardian, they’re calling Tuchel downright ruthless for binning Palmer, Foden, and an in-form Gibbs-White. Ian Ladyman at the Daily Mail is equally baffled, arguing that the more you look at the Maguire snub, the more it reeks of a massive clanger. The suggestion that Newcastle’s Dan Burn or Leverkusen’s Jarell Quansah are somehow a safer pair of hands than Maguire is, in Ladyman’s words, a massive stretch. The Times has branded the whole affair a “monumental surprise.” Tuchel has until midday to get his story straight for the press, though you wouldn’t bet on him winning over that room.
When Survival Trumps Silverware
While England’s footballing sphere hyperventilates over who gets on the plane, a very different sort of dread is paralysing things across the Channel. High-stakes drama in this game isn’t exclusively reserved for World Cup selections; sometimes, it’s about the grim, existential terror of the drop. Tonight at the Stade de France, OGC Nice face off against RC Lens in the Coupe de France final. Yet, if you took a stroll around the French Riviera this week, you’d be hard-pressed to find a shred of cup fever.
Earlier this week, the club shop in Place Masséna painted a bleak picture. Empty aisles. A city battered by intermittent rain. The atmosphere felt bizarrely flat, almost lifeless, for a town just days away from a showpiece final at the national stadium. The reason? The sheer, unadulterated fear of slipping down into Ligue 2 has completely swallowed any hope of domestic glory.
After grinding out a lifeless nil-nil draw against Metz on the final day of the season last Sunday, Nice slumped to 16th. Now, their top-flight survival hinges on a gut-wrenching, two-legged playoff against Ligue 2’s third-placed side, Saint-Etienne. Those fixtures, slated for next Tuesday and Friday, drop just days after tonight’s cup final. The grim reality of the situation triggered ugly scenes at the Allianz Riviera, with hundreds of furious fans spilling onto the pitch at the final whistle against Metz. Club president Jean-Pierre Rivère didn’t mince his words, acknowledging the bleakness of it all. He gets the anger. It’s been an absolute slog of a campaign, and right now, survival is the be-all and end-all. Silverware, it seems, is just a distraction when your house is burning down.
