Iconic football writer Henry Winter has covered England for decades, and hopes Thomas Tuchel’s fire and ice can build on Gareth Southgate’s legacy

HENRY WINTER FOOTBALL WRITER / BROADCASTER @henrywinter

W hen Thomas Tuchel delivered his opening team talk at Mainz in 2009, he began with a smile. Before the words, he used a facial expression to make the right impression. Tuchel wanted to set a tone of positivity with his players in his first major job as a head coach. So he smiled.

One of the players in that Mainz meeting, reaching retirement some years later, wrote to Tuchel saying how much that smile meant. Coach and players were all in it together. The German’s task now is to put a smile on England’s face.

Spirits don’t need that much lifting. Gareth Southgate did a magnificent job in his 102 games in charge, guiding the Three Lions to a semi-final, a final, a quarter-final and a final. Southgate has left Tuchel plenty of talent. He has transformed the mood since 2016. Fans still get flashbacks to Nice and Icelandic long throws, thunder claps and a short-tempered Roy Hodgson departing. Sam Allardyce quickly left clutching a pint of wine and a grievance against the press after a newspaper sting.