Alex Crook RIPS INTO Thomas Tuchel and REVEALS LATEST on his England Future!

that so many people out there have come to terms with the fact that this is a TV show as well as a radio show.Primarily we're live and talk sport, of course we are.And we're following up the pretty desperately sad news, if you're an England fan, that England went out at the hands of Argentina last night at the semi -final stage and the World Cup final dream is well and truly over.Simon has a strong view on it, as you'd expect, that maybe time is up for Thomas Tuchel.But how do others feel?Alex Crook, our colleague, Topsport's chief football correspondent, is still out in New York and has witnessed it all out there, just as we did back here last night.

Alex, good afternoon to you.Tuchel, to go or to stay, where do you stand on it?

Good afternoon, Jim.Good afternoon, Simon.I've just had the news that I'm actually coming back tomorrow as well now to host your show from Monday.So thank you, Thomas Tuchel.Not only is England's World Cup journey over, mine is coming to an end as well.Even more reason for me to be angry with the manager.

And I completely agree with Simon's sentiments.I went to bed last night thinking Thomas Tuchel should fall on his sword and resign.And I've woken up this morning with that same belief.This was not what I expected.on the players this was on the manager the so -called elite manager who was brought in to do what Gareth Southgate couldn't do and get us over the line in the big games he did the complete opposite we had Argentina where we wanted them they were there for the taking to go so defensive with 20 minutes plus a lot of stoppage time to play was a dereliction of duty and i said as soon as he made that change to go to a back five we won't even get two extra time Argentina will win this game in 90 minutes.How can you be an elite manager, a winner, and think the best way to beat Argentina, the world champions, the holders of this World Cup, is to let the best player on the planet, Lionel Messi, dink balls into your box for 25 minutes?

But Alex, he can't become a bad manager overnight, can he?And also, they improved his contract during this World Cup, so they're not going to pivot now, are they?

No, they're not.My understanding is that the FA have belief in the manager, Tuchel isn't going to fall on his sword, but again, much like Scotland with Steve Clarke, why would you give a manager an improved new contract before a ball has been kicked at the tournament?I think he played a blind to Thomas Tuchel.I think he gave the FA the impression that Manchester United was seeking his services.I'm not sure that was ever really the case.They were when Eric ten Haag was in situ, but Michael Carrick was always going to be the direction of travel.

I think he's had the FA's trousers down, Jim.

OK, I'll bring Simon in on this very shortly.Mark Bullingham, as you know, on LinkedIn of the FA, Thomas and the coaches led brilliantly throughout and the players responded with an incredible brotherhood to take us through to the semis and then he says Thomas and his team will take us to the home Euros in 2028.This was Mark Bullingham when Tuchel got the job, Alex, and he was asked, all right, why Tuchel?Why a German in the job?And this was Bullingham.

We're always really clear that we wanted the very best person for the job.And we feel like we owe it to the players and the country to give them that support, that leadership in tournaments that will help to get them over the line and give us the best chance of winning a trophy in the men's World Cup.So we feel we've done that.We feel delighted that Thomas has joined us.

I mean, there were supposed to be performance clauses in Tuchel's contract.Alex, do we know what they are?

No, but I'd imagine reaching a semi -final when you're the fourth seed is probably okay in that regard.I'm not sure that would be seen as a sacrilegious offence necessarily.So, yeah, Tuchel's going to stay, there's no doubt about that.But I would like to see a bit more contrition from the manager as well.When he comes out after the game, he says he has no regrets about what he did with those in -game substitutions.I think he's deluding everybody.

Simon, I think Alex is singing from your hymn sheet.Well, we're saying a lot of similar things.I mean, it's like watching England last night, like watching an underdog in a tennis match, being two sets in the one and then questioning if they deserve to be in that position and capitulating.That's exactly what Thomas Tuchel sat there doing, to some extent.And he was brought in to make big decisions, he didn't make them.All the decisions he made were...

I mean, you've got to...I think there are times to be pragmatic.Of course there's times to be pragmatic.But there was also times to be brave.And to win a World Cup, I think...I know the Greeks did it in 2004.

They were pragmatic through the tournament and managed to find their way into a Euro Championship winning team.But on the whole, if you're playing against a World Champion and you've got them 1 -0 up, you've got to put your foot on their throat.It was a criticism I made of Gareth Southgate against the French when we got back into the game in the quarterfinals in Qatar and we had the French on the rack and Gareth wasn't brave enough to overload the front line and really put the French to the sword.Thomas Tuchel didn't react to the opportunity, didn't take the opportunity.In fact, he went the other way.He let the players dictate the mentality and then decided to compound it by supporting them in that mentality of dropping back and questioning whether they had the ability to beat this team.

And then attacking players off, not replacing Declan Rice on a like -for -like basis with someone like Kobe Manhoe who could have come on and done a job with Messi rather than let Messi have the free reigns that he got.We ceded the midfield.We had no output ball.Harry Kane is not a player of any pace, so there's no point having him on the field when you're trying to get up the pitch.in mind Thomas Tuchel shows a set of criterias and qualifications that belie the title that he was given in terms of Mark Bullingham giving him the best opportunity to get across the line.That was not the very thing that Mark Bullingham said was the case in the appointment.

That was not the best opportunity to get across the line.

Alex, I know the graph that you put in wasyou're at a major tournament like this.I'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell us more on this one.So Cristian Romero in Argentina in Sunday's final.Is Romero on his way out of Tottenham Hotspur?

Yeah, almost certainly.I think that's been the case.for several months now.The fact he almost missed their crunch relegation decider on the final day of the season tells you that his heart is no longer with Spurs.They've obviously brought in a couple of defensive reinforcements already in Marcus Seneci and Jan -Paul van Gekker.Micky van der Ven, I expect to stay because the asking price would be too big for a lot of his suitors.

So there isn't really a place for Romero at Tottenham anymore.Inter Milan, I think his most likely destination.There's been some talk of Barcelona as well.To me, he's a classic Diego Simeone.Atletico Madrid player but it looks like the trial has gone cold there but I would expect Romero to leave Spurs in the coming days after this World Cup final.

Alex, thank you very much indeed.Ended not in the way you would have liked but we'll see you back here sooner than we thought.Simon and Romero, we know that spent virtually the last 18 months of his time at Tottenham Hotspur seemingly calling out the ambition of the board and he got into some fairly dangerous territory.Do you think that this was always on the cards that it would lead to him exiting from the football club.

Certainly the last year I think he elevated and I think that's because there was a vacuum of leadership and when there's a vacuum of leadership people start filling it with their comments start getting brave and bolder and so he did get into that space.I think he's a very good player you saw him last night one particular piece of skill that he did and dropped it from one foot and pushed it out the other and that kind of level of composure and quality is what he got.Remember he's a good player he does have that sort of combustible temperament, I had thought and hoped without really having much investment that someone like de Zerby, because there's that old saying isn't there, all the angels rejoice in heaven when one sinner repents, if you can get Romero to have converted into Christianity.a player, he's a player, no doubt about it, he's a player.If Di Zerbi could have got him on side and converted him from being a dissenting voice to being a powerful leading voice, you'd have had an actually even more powerful statement from the manager.Clearly they think it's probably not worth the time and aggravation.

He's halfway out the door, so might as well facilitate the outcome.But there's no doubt in my mind that Christian Romero was a good player.I just think he lost sight of the fact that he wasn't bigger than the club, and he was allowed to believe that he could say certain things and behave in a certain way, and that is a combination of Pastor Cogler's management and a combination of Thomas Frank's management.

You have to also think, though, Simon, before we hit this break, in many areas of what you said, he was right.calling out the board for...Hold on.Well, look at how they've responded.

It's all well and good.I thought you were saying they've spent money like drunken sailors.It's all well and good, criticising people for putting you in the cart, but when you're one of the people that puts you in the cart, it's a bit of a bleeding sauce.Get on with your job.Get on with what you're doing.Are you being the best version of yourself before you start telling everyone else that they should be the best version of themselves?

Now, we know, we've discussed this and we've gone around the houses as to the reasons why the Lewis family may well have changed the game.And if they'd have changed the game when Levy would have been there, would Daniel have taken advantage of that money?Because I'm pretty damn sure that Daniel Levy running the football club didn't want to cost himself an inordinate amount of interest on the value of the football club in terms of the interest they're paying to the bank if the Lewis family were going to make hundreds of millions of pounds available as they seem to be doing now.So the rules have changed.Romero has a lot to say for himself, but there's a lot of footballers that have a lot to say for themselves when really what they should be doing is focusing on what they're doing.It's always a way to deflect from their own shortcomings.

And that's why I made the point earlier on about saying this is one of the rare occasions, not because I spend my entire time hating on players, but one of the rare occasions where I actually feel a degree of empathy for those footballers yesterday, because I do feel that their manager let them down.

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