English managers disappointed by Tuchel hire, says Wrexham’s Parkinson | OneFootball

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said that English managers are upset at the FA’s decision not to hire an Englishman to replace Gareth Southgate.

After interviewing several candidates, the FA hired former Chelsea and Bayern Munich mamager Thomas Tuchel. Taking over from Southgate, who had held the job since 2016, the German will become the first foreign England manager since Italian Fabio Capello left the post in 2011.

Phil Parkinson has managed Wrexham since 2021, overseeing its rise to global fame after Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club and launched the Welcome to Wrexham documentary in 2020. He reported that English managers are disappointed to see a foreign manager take over the top job with the Three Lions, but acknowledged the fact there was no obvious domestic alternative.

He said: “I think there probably wasn’t an obvious candidate who was available, so I can understand why they’ve gone down that route of a foreign manager.

“Thomas Tuchel is obviously a top manager, I think everybody respects that totally, but equally there is a little bit of sadness from English coaches and managers that there isn’t an Englishman the FA felt was right for the job.

Despite that disappointment, he has backed Tuchel to succeed, saying that he expects English football fans to get behind the team as they did for Southgate.

“Thomas Tuchel will get every bit of support from everybody in football, and hopefully he can take England on to that next step which is winning a major tournament.”

Speaking at the Football Writers Association annual awards, where he was recognised for achieving back-to-back promotions with Wrexham, he took time to reflect on his league successes.

He said: “I’m pleased with the last year, back-to-back promotions was special for us last year. It was a very competitive League Two last year, and it went to the wire before we got it over the line.

“Obviously the next step is League One. We’re pleased with how we have started in a very competitive division, where the depth of quality goes deep and there’s a lot of teams challenging.

“You have to dream [of promotion]. Everytime you go into the summer with your recruitment dfrive you have to be ambitious and build a squad you think can get you to the top of the table, because why would you do anything different?

“We want to build the squad as strong as we can within our budget and we have had a good start, but the lads have adapted well too.”

Wrexham currently sit second in League One with 24 points from 12 matches.