The Thomas Tuchel era has started.
We have heard the boss in New England speak about building a 'brotherhood'. We have heard his players reveal how he wants them to make every second. We have noticed a glimpse of the curtain a glimpse of what training will look like and on Friday at Wembley we will see for the first time that Tuchel took his plans into action while offering the World Cup glory.
So far it is the same story as everyone who has ever worked with Tuchel will tell: a manager obsessed with the details, who weakens the smallest points and does things in his own way.
At the start of their first training session, players held hands in a circle and tried to keep the ball up. If they didn't do this, as Burnn found out, they all had to do 10 pers -ups. Later he let them pop balls in a garbage can.
Tuchel has always done things differently. At former club Mainz he had his defenders hold tennis balls so that they could not pull the shirts of the attackers. At Borussia Dortmund the players were warmed up by playing basketball.
“He was all about the details,” says Roman Burki, the Dortmund keeper who won the German cup under Tuchel in 2016-17 tells Mail Sport. 'Every time we passed drilling, he wanted the keepers to be involved. He wanted us to eat in a certain way. He told the chefs that he didn't want much fat and would use better oil.
“He was obsessed with players who gave the ball to the right feet to give them time to turn immediately. We have almost never had the same training session. '
Because that is the word that people always use about him. Obsessed. He and Pep Guardiola once spent hours moving salt and pepper pots around a restaurant table in Munich while delving into their tactical beliefs.
For a pre-season friendly against Olympiacos with Mainz, Tuchel saw over the field that measuring the height of the grass and was so impressed by the surface that he told the club's sports director to hire the groundman.
One of his first movements as an English boss was to change the schemes, so that players do their media in the morning and train in the afternoon, will take place closer to the time matches.
He has rearranged the classification of St George's Park to concentrate more in the common areas.
That togetherness has also been one of the most important messages from Tuchel. He inspired his new charges with a passionate speech, a Morgan Gibbs-White described as 'very intense'. He told his players to simulate the big NBA basket bars of the past, who were high-fived when they succeeded and they took it off when they didn't.
He showed their graphs of data from the Euro 2024 -Longerag through Spain and how their interactions with each other had fallen to 35 in the second in the first half. To win the World Cup, his players have to be there when they need it.
Tuchel encouraged his players to determine their own high standards and not to be afraid to dig each other out if they found that the standards were not set – because he will certainly do that.
“We never knew which Thomas Tuchel would pop up for training,” says Shinji Okazaki, the top scorer of Tuchel in Mainz in 2013-14, to Mail Sport. “It was like he had two personalities.
“Sometimes he was smart, sometimes he was emotional. Some days he would be happy and enjoy the training session and other times he was crazy.
“I missed a shot once and he ran to me and shouted me 10 cm from my face. He spoke German, which was difficult for me, but I certainly understood his emotion!
'I know that managers sometimes have to be crazy, because if they don't win games, they will be fired, but Thomas is more like this than other coaches. He knew I could take it. If he was angry with me, he knew I would never give up. '
Burki supports that. Put it wrong, whether you are Capless Myles Lewis-Skelly or Real Madrid-Superster Jude Bellingham, and you will hear about it.
“He was always honest with everyone. It didn't matter if you were a five -star player, he gave his opinion, “he adds. 'If you liked it or not, he is the boss.
'Every player was the same on the field. You have to work and if you don't work, you'll hear it – and we've heard it often! '
Although so far it has all been a smile in St George's Park prior to the opening match of Tuchel against Albania, if history is something to pass by, things tend to burst out – and fast.
Perhaps it is a good work that Tuchel's agreement with the FA is only an 18-month one-tournament World Cup deal.
Former Mainz goalkeeper Heinz Muller called him a 'dictator'. Tuchel eventually ran away from Mainz in 2014. He was fired by PSG on Christmas Eve after falling with the sports director about transfers. Even after winning the German cup with Dortmund in 2017, he left at the end of the season.
Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke, when discussing Tuchel's departure from the club, described him as a 'difficult person but a fantastic coach'.
Tuchel left Bayern Munich last summer and the appointment of his successor Vincent Kompany, club legend and board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “He (Kompany) embodies the community and does not qualify, because unfortunately was the case last year.”
Reports in Germany around the time of the departure of Tuchel from Bayern claimed that a dressing room had been split with one half against their boss and others, including Harry Kane and Eric Dier, part of a group for the coach and his authority.
“He is quite right in how he talks,” said Kane. “Maybe there were some players who didn't like it or agree with that.”
Some of the former Tuchel colleagues do not want to talk to Tuchel at all when they are contacted by Mail Sport, and prefer to concentrate on their new efforts. Others who are on talking about the record, talking about a man you would charm one moment and cut you off the next moment if he didn't feel that you read from his page.
But for all obsession and fire there are many others who have played among him who say what Tuchel distinguishes his 'human side'.
“Tuchel is one of the best coaches I have ever played,” says the legendary defender Thiago Silva Mail Sport, the captain of Tuchel at PSG and Chelsea. 'We have often talked about tactics together and it is his love for this side of the game that always helps him to find new successes and win more trophies and titles, but what makes him so good is his passion about football and his feeling with his players. He is specifically in how he works, but he has a special human side.
'When we lost the Champions League final to Bayern Munich (with PSG in 2020), he presented me a big photo of us with a nice message that, regardless of the defeat by Bayern Munich, it was more important for us to continue looking for new chapters. He taught me that although a victory brings happiness, a defeat only brings lessons that you can learn. A year later we won the Champions League together in Chelsea. '
When they did that and defeated the Manchester City of Guardiola, Tuchel sent another photo to his staff, a mounting of the players and all backroom employees, including the chef chefs and the medical team with a personal message to each.
Tuchel made a point to facet all his players in England before they met in St George's Park in an attempt to get to know them better, as many as football players.
“He sent an SMS to introduce himself and set up a video call to get to know me,” said Aston Villa Midfender Morgan Rogers. 'I have never had that experience with a manager before, so it was nice to get to know each other a little and see each other, so when I came here, it wasn't the first interaction I had with him. It was nice to just speak about football, I as a person and him as a person.
“When I met his aura and attitude … it's hard to describe, but he has that level of trust, that level of respect already. His presence is a bit different. Certain managers have different ways about them. His Aura is one that I have never experienced before. That is different from what I have confronted before.
'You can see what he is like, the way he acts. He has been so cooled and calm. But when it's time to work, it's time to work. That is the kind of atmosphere that I received from him from the day, I have been here. It is really good so far. I really enjoy it. '
It has been something that Tuchel liked to do during his career. He likes to make contact with his players, lets them feel sought. He has managed the biggest names – and egos – in football, from Neymar to Kylian Mbappe.
“I had just been banned with Freiburg and I didn't know what was coming,” says Burki. “My agent told me that Borussia Dortmund wanted me. I couldn't believe it. I had just been relegated. Tuchel took over at Dortmund and he called me and told me that he could both see us in front of the yellow wall. After we talked, he continued to text me: “You and I for the yellow wall, imagine that!” For me it was something special.
“He was always interested in your family and how things were at home. He knew that we were and can be struck by things away from football.
“I had a situation when I wasn't happy with the goalkeeper training. I felt stuck. I didn't know if I should see him, but we had a meeting and he wrote everything down. I expected him to tell me to do my work, but he thanked me that I had come to him and a week later we had a second goalkeeper coach. Even when he saw things differently, he always listened. '
When the Dortmund -Teamus was hit by three roadside bombs in 2017, Tuchel arranged with the club for each player to have security and never drove home without a police escort. He arranged that players see a therapist.
“He did everything he could,” Burki adds. “He spoke with many of us alone, even though it was also a big shock for him, because we had players who really struggled.”
Just like with his tactic, it is all in the personal data. In Chelsea he shipped crates from Lebkuchen, a traditional German festive cookie, like a special Christmas gift for his team. In Mainz he told former Japan International Okazaki that he would take them to a nearby Japanese restaurant if he managed to score against his former club Stuttgart.
“I scored – and he paid!” says Okazaki.
They all paint the same image of Tuchel. Charismatic, caring, controlling. An intense spirit that builds towers of greatness, but she tears as soon as it starts to unravel. And in the end it does so often.
As long as football returns before it all crashes into flames, it must have been worth it.
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