Thomas Tuchel rejected Man Utd to take England job

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 16 Oct 2024 09:47 BST
• 3 min read

Thomas Tuchel rejected the chance to be Manchester United’s next manager in order to become the new head coach of the England national team.

Tuchel has agreed a deal to become the next permanent England manager from January 2025, with the appointment made official on Wednesday.

Interim England boss Lee Carsley will now return to England’s U21 side.

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The Times reports that Tuchel was made aware that Man Utd wanted him to replace Erik ten Hag as manager when the time came to sack the Dutchman.

The report states that Tuchel was United’s number one target to succeed Ten Hag, who is on the brink of the sack at Old Trafford.

However, Tuchel was not prepared to wait any longer for United to pull the trigger on Ten Hag and so accepted the offer from England.

Ten Hag remains as Man Utd manager

It’s believed that Ten Hag has seven games to save his Manchester United job.

The Daily Mirror and others report that Ten Hag has until the next international break in November to improve Man Utd's fortunes.

Man Utd have seven matches before then against Brentford (h), Fenerbahce (a) in the Europa League, West Ham (a), Leicester (h) in the League Cup, Chelsea (h), PAOK (h) in the Europa League and Leicester (h).

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The final match in this sequence is on Sunday November 10 at home to Leicester in the Premier League. There is then another international break for 10 days following that game.

If Ten Hag has not improved fortunes by then, Ten Hag is finally expected to be sacked.

Tuchel was not prepared to wait until then, and so Man Utd have now missed out on the appointment of one of Europe’s most admired managers.

Ten Hag survived this latest international break and the much-anticipated executive summit held in London on Tuesday last week by United chiefs.

The United board held a six-hour meeting at INEOS’ offices in London where it was decided that no action would be taken to sack Ten Hag.

The meeting was chaired by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos owner and United’s largest single minority shareholder. Also present were Ineos head of sport, Sir Dave Brailsford, United CEO Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, the sporting director, and technical director Jason Wilcox.

Ten Hag will be in charge for Man Utd’s next match against Brentford on Saturday 19 October at Old Trafford.

Tuchel becomes the first German ever to manage the England national team.