Thomas Tuchel believes England are building a “precious brotherhood” and warned dropouts will not be accepted ahead of the World Cup.
England have already sealed their place at next summer’s finals ahead of two qualifiers this week, starting with Serbia at Wembley on Thursday before signing off for the year against Albania in Tirana.
This camp comes a year on from Harry Kane publicly expressing his disappointment after nine players withdrew from interim boss Lee Carsley’s squad for Nations League games against Greece and Republic of Ireland.
At the time, Kane said it was “a tough period of the season and maybe it’s been taken advantage of a little bit” as some players appeared to prioritise club over country. In that context, footage of Kane addressing the group in the dressing room after last month’s 5-0 win over Serbia declaring “we are qualified but we go full gas in November — everyone back and everyone ready to go” appeared particularly pointed.
Tuchel was announced as Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor in October 2024 but did not start the role until January and so when asked if he sought to avoid a repeat of last year’s withdrawals, the England boss said on Wednesday: “Not knowingly but what we are trying is to build is a strong bond, an energy, a group, a team, a brotherhood that everybody wants to join.
“And to also build a competition that everyone knows ‘if I pull out in the wrong moment, or from a 50-50 situation, the door can be closed because someone else takes my shirt, someone else takes my place.’
“And not even as a threat, but the other way around: that everyone is keen to come, everyone loves to come to camp, loves to perform for the country and this is the last step of elite football is to represent an elite country like England in a World Cup qualifying game or a World Cup itself.
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“It is the pinnacle and that is how it should feel. I think we are absolutely on the [right] way. Everyone wanted to be part of the camps. Everyone is desperate to come.
“No-one is giving us any signals that this may be a good time to rest because we have already qualified and we will also not accept it so it is an energy that feeds itself. This is the moment where we are.”
Pushed on how precious that team spirit was, Tuchel replied: “Very precious. It is the absolute key for me, before tactics, before personnel and whatever. That is the key: everyone loves to be in camp, loves to play for England and enjoys it.” Despite England securing qualification with two games to play, Tuchel insisted now was not the time to rotate.
“I didn’t feel that we were experimenting in the last two camps and we will not start in this camp,” he said. “We take it serious, these are World Cup qualifiers at home. We want to build and keep on going.”
