WHAT HAPPENED?
The Three Lions, who remain without a major honour in men’s international football since 1966, have turned to former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel for inspiration in the dugout heading towards another global gathering in the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
His reign has not got off to the most convincing of starts, despite winning three World Cup qualifiers without conceding a goal, and questions are already being asked of whether Tuchel is the right man to bring 60 years of hurt to a close.

DID YOU KNOW?
Mills knows all about the pain of missing out on a World Cup crown, having formed part of England’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’ at the 2002 finals, and fears that the class of 2026 will not be ready to succeed where so many before them have failed.
WHAT MILLS SAID
Former Manchester City and Leeds defender Mills, speaking in association with William Hill Vegas, told GOAL when asked about Tuchel and collective ambition heading forward: “What people don’t understand is, being England manager is completely different to club management. It’s a completely different set of circumstances and scenarios.
“Listening to Thomas Tuchel, he said we’ve had 12 or 13 training sessions. That’s two weeks in club management. International management is about man-management and being able to throw something together last minute, make those players happy and get them to gel very quickly, keeping them onside. It’s tough. You have to understand international football and the players within that, and that’s never going to be easy.
“We don’t have the best players in the world. We seem to have this arrogance that we have the world’s greatest players, all these unbelievable young players, but the fact is that we don’t, simple as that.
“Realistically when you look at our squad and the quality of players that will play and the experiences that they have, we are in the top six probably in the world, top eight. So we make a quarter-final, that’s about par. If we make a semi-final, that’s good. If we go on and make a final, that’s brilliant. If we win it, that’s a miracle! We have to be a bit more realistic I think as England fans.”
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WHAT NEXT FOR ENGLAND?
England sit top of Group K in the UEFA section of World Cup qualification and will return to action in September - looking to put a disappointing friendly defeat against Senegal behind them - when facing Andorra and Serbia.