Football Daily | Klopp, Xavi, Zidane, Mancini: big nations ready to unleash bigger dogs

While Thomas Tuchel continues to gaslight his employers at the FA into believing he was in no way responsible for England’s comically shambolic semi-final exit at the hands of Argentina, not every head coach who underperformed at the Geopolitics World Cup is still in their job. A total of 17 different managers who took teams to North America have since left their roles, with safety-first’s Steve Clarke, failing-up’s Roberto Martínez and tyranny’s Marcelo Bielsa among them. In Europe, teams such as Portugal (Jorge Jesus), Croatia (Slaven Bilic), Scotland (Sébastien Pocognoli), Czechia (Santi Denia) and Belgium (Mark van Bommel) will go into the Nations League under new management, but it is towards the bigger dogs of the football pack where Football Daily wishes to turn today’s beady gaze.

Germany: Having been accused of using his role as a TV pundit to undermine Julian Nagelsmann during the GWC, it was no great shock to see Jürgen Klopp take over from the 39-year-old when he stepped down. Klopp immediately fired a volley across the bows of the German press pack and will begin his first role in international management with a trip to the Netherlands. Unlike his predecessor, the former Liverpool boss is unlikely to rock up to training on a skateboard and it will be intriguing to see how successfully he instils his ethos of heavy-metal football in a group of players he only gets into the rehearsal room three or four times a season. “This is the pinnacle, the absolute high point of my footballing career as coach,” he parped, raising sceptical eyebrows on Merseyside. “I will give everything I have got.”

Netherlands: Upon replacing Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernández was eager to emphasise his deep connection with the Dutch. While it remains to be seen if the former Spanish midfield maestro is a bike-riding windmill enthusiast with a capacity for extreme bluntness, he was handed his Barcelona debut by Louis van Gaal and name-dropped club legends Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels during his unveiling. Third choice on a shortlist of four behind Pep Guardiola and Arne Slot, Xavi can at least sleep safe in the knowledge the Dutch FA considered him a slightly more glamorous candidate than Michael Reiziger, and will begin his international reign with a match against a fellow newbie. “I feel motivated because we are playing against Germany,” he cheered, before his opening game in Amsterdam. “So yeah, it’s a big challenge from the beginning, but I think we will be ready.”

Italy: Having suffered the indignity of failing to qualify for their third successive World Cup, Italian football suits didn’t so much go back to the drawing board, as back in time when it came to replacing Gennaro Gattuso. Roberto Mancini is back for his second spell in charge, having previously masterminded victory in the European Championship in 2021 and subsequent failure to get to the HRWC in 2022. “I believed that the best person to become head coach was ‌Roberto Mancini,” tooted FIGC top brass Giovanni Malagò, shortly after his organisation’s plot to install Andrea Pirlo in the role was foiled by the former midfielder’s commercial ties to a Russian betting firm. A famously patient people when it comes to their national football team, fans of the Azzurri are surely unlikely to get upset if early results against Belgium and Turkey don’t go their team’s way …

France: It was a matter of when, not if Zinedine Zidane took over the national team and despite his pedigree as a three-time Bigger Cup-winning coach of Real Madrid, he has extremely big boots to fill. After taking over from his former French water carrier, Didier Deschamps, Zizou played all the right notes. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment,” he cheered. “It’s a dream come true. The France national team has been the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me. It’s a great adventure that I hope is just beginning.” Kylian Mbappé has already described the prospect of working under Zizou as being “like a film”. Its box-office success will almost certainly stand or fall on the chemistry – or lack of it – between two of French football’s most iconic leading men.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Every time I see it, I’m cringing, I’m in disbelief. It’s horrible to watch back and to see what could have been. Thankfully I was fortunate I did manage to fall on to the floor at the right time, so nothing snapped as the roller went over me … I was able to get my left arm up and relieve some of the pressure, and then I was able to get my teammates around me who were able to lift it, and I was able to squeeze out but at that moment where it was crushing my left leg, it was quite terrifying, I must say” – Andros Townsend explains what it was like to be run over by that pitch roller in Thailand and just how much he thanks his lucky stars for not coming to more harm than suffering a few cuts and bruises. 

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FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Prize o’ the day to Barry Glendenning, surely, for mentioning Johnny Crumplin (football genius) in Monday’s Football Daily. As an Ipswich fan marooned in Sussex, I spent much of my teenage years at the Goldstone which, despite being a dump (I stood on the crumbling South Stand), held a certain magic for me. It still does, actually. Haven’t been to the Amex yet – hopeless nostalgia is undoubtedly a factor. The team weren’t much better than the ground for most of that time, but the 1987-88 promotion season was memorable. Garry Nelson was a bit special, Doug Rougvie had played under Fergie at Aberdeen and Gerry Armstrong had legendary status after *that* goal, but the rest of the team probably (and unfairly ) fall into the journeyman category. I loved them all. Keith Dublin dribbling his way into and then out of trouble, sleeves-up Kevin Bremner who grafted and worked the Albion into the promotion places, Deano (one of the Wilkins brothers) classy and, of course, Barry Lloyd, who never brought a sub on until the last four or five minutes, frustrating us beyond belief. And into this pantheon came teenage Johnny C who, to start with, was utterly hapless, hence the nickname football genius. Somehow, despite this, we took to him from the off and it was lovely to see how he grew into becoming an Albion legend in what were fallow years. Blimey, not sure where that all came from – you can probably tell I’m stuck out in the middle of the Fens on a slow-moving train. But thank you for bringing it all back to me!” – Jonathan Foulkes.

I know the powers that be have listened to Football Daily’s ‘Stop Football’ pleas and given us very little to do for the next three weeks but, as we are just five games in to the Premier League season, can everyone stop going on about the race for the Golden Boot and which team are going to bloody champions” – Nigel Sanders.

Judging by the photo of him sitting behind their ‘Life’s Good’ logo in yesterday’s Quote of the Day, LG could do a lot worse than appoint José Mourinho as a brand ambassador for their campaign. As football watchers have long known, he exudes the spirit of that exclamation from every single pore” – Andrew Parker.

So, Jonathan Wilson has a new book, about football in Eastern Europe, Behind the Curtain, while his take on Zidane as the new France manager will reveal the ‘wizard behind the curtain’. Brilliant effort from the subeditor and marketing team working in harmony” – Paul Vickers.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day prize goes to … Jonathan Foulkes, who wins a copy of Behind the Curtain by Big Website’s Jonathan Wilson. It’s out now and available in The Guardian Bookshop alongside loads of other great football titles. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here. 

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