A few hours after the end of a rather boring World Cup qualifying draw on a cold afternoon in Zurich, Didier Deschamps stood outside a plastic football field and spoke on the phone.
Deschamps, the France coach, is the most decorated figurehead in the world and yet no one bothered him here at FIFA headquarters.
It wasn't quite the same for Thomas Tuchel. He cannot take over as England head coach until January 1, but this was his first official assignment. Suffice it to say, he now knows exactly what it means to hold that title.
Tuchel barely got a moment's rest here. At one point, as he made the short walk from one nondescript building to another, the 51-year-old German was surrounded by the kind of moving TV and radio chatter normally found outside a courthouse during a major trial . And he didn't even do that much wrong. Not yet anyway.
Once inside and stationed in front of an English press that will follow his every move on a journey that we all hope will take us to the 2026 World Cup finals in America, Tuchel declared he was ready and that was reassuring.
“Yes, I feel good,” said the former Chelsea manager. 'I feel full of energy and I can't wait to get back on the pitch and be close to the players and feel them and feel the dressing room. It's the best place you can be.'
As for the draw itself. Tuchel called a group consisting of Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra 'difficult'. But that was diplomacy at work.
The truth is that he and the FA will be very pleased. No burdensome travel. No matches against other home countries. This was a draw that offered many advantages for a country that once again hopes to travel to a major tournament as one of the favorites.
More generally, this was a fascinating opportunity to see Tuchel work on such a stage for the first time. After driving from his home in Munich to attend the draw, he now has less than three weeks before he starts the 18-month contract that expires after the next World Cup.
He brushed aside the delicate issue of nationality and the way his appointment has been received in some quarters. “No hard feelings,” he smiled.
But then it turned to the slightly more nuanced issue of where he has been since he was unveiled at Wembley in mid-October.
Tuchel did not attend England's Nations League matches as interim manager Lee Carsley ended his spell with victories in Greece and at Wembley over the Republic of Ireland. He has also not been seen at any Premier League matches, which has raised some eyebrows given that his first match – possibly a World Cup qualifier – will take place in March.
'Why should I sit in the stands?' he asked. “If we decided I was in charge, I would be on the sidelines. But we didn't. So at that point my wish was to have Lee complete this campaign because the FA more or less had the agreement with Lee to complete this Nations League campaign. Why are the cameras watching me? Why the focus on me? What about Lee and his team and his nomination?
“It's a way for me to show my respect and show my confidence, not to be there and sit in the stands and get all the media attention. So that was very clear. But like I said, we've obviously been watching a lot of games lately.
“We are already doing some in-depth planning on how to build a group and how we can influence this group.”
Tuchel will sit with Carsley at St George's Park next month and one hopes it is a conversation about details. A lot seems to have changed since Gareth Southgate's tenure ended in defeat to Spain in Berlin during the Euro 2024 final in July. Carsley provided new players and sometimes a new attitude.
“I was in a great position before Lee won the games and I'm still in a great position because I have the privilege of doing this job,” Tuchel explained. 'I'm very proud and excited to be at the start. I'm happy that the team performed and Lee delivered, so it was the right choice to let him do the job.
'It was difficult because they had to achieve a result against Greece with many absentees and they succeeded, so well done and all credit to them.
'The famous transfer has not yet been done. We will of course do this when I am in St George's in January. From then on we will hopefully have very close communication and open doors because he is the Under 21 coach and I am responsible for the first team.
'Normally that's how I work and I also expect Lee to be close to me, so of course I'm interested in his view of the group, the team.'
With Tuchel working on an unusually short contract, this post has an immediacy and urgency that feels a little strange. This is not about long-term planning and construction. It's about winning. Tuchel declared himself happy with this and suggested that it would help bring energy into his work. This is his first international role and it will be fundamentally different to what his work at Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain previously felt like.
However, it seems like he will enjoy the attention that this job brings, and it is to be hoped that he will, because there will be plenty of it. The interest from his adopted country will be suffocating and there will also be plenty from Germany.
At least on this occasion he was not asked whether he will sing the national anthem before his first match early this spring. That can wait.
There are already problems to be solved and problems to be addressed. Kyle Walker. Phil Foden. Harry Kane. Jack Grealish. Ben White. Marcus Rashford. Mason Greenwood. Who starts at left back? And so it goes on.
The last time England lost a World Cup qualifier was in Ukraine in 2009 – a dead rubber – and this group of games should not cause Tuchel's England much discomfort. That is not arrogance, but rather a reflection of the depth and quality of the players available. However, there will always be fuss around the national team, and there will always be fuss around the manager.
Tuchel has experienced that a bit here. At least he's started now. At least he's here.
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