World Cup opinion: Sack busted flush Tuchel, get Guardiola in – and England can win in 2030

And guess what else? In Thomas Tuchel England they thought they’d found a manager with the tactical nous missing from the locker of the previous incumbent in the job, Sir Gareth Southgate. Don’t even get me started on knighthoods! Yet in the last 25 minutes or so of Wednesday’s crucial World Cup semi-final against Argentina, Tuchel appeared to be doing the work of two men, unfortunately it was Laurel and Hardy. On going one down to a a quality finish from Anthony Gordon, Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni set about taking the game to England. Succinctly put by BBC commentator Guy Mowbray when Argentina made their triple substitution, “This in not tinkering, this is the cavalry arriving.” Scaloni’s attempts to rescue the game were aided and abetted by almost sheer lunacy in the opposing dugout.

After a cautious first 45 minutes, not helped by some initial Frank Spencer-like refereeing, England taking the lead on 52 minutes ignited the match, but what followed was almost in the style of the aforementioned Southgate and his response when England had gone into a 1-0 lead in big games.

Rather than replace clearly tired players and put on ones that might have helped England get that crucial second, Tuchel went all ‘Gareth’ and effectively went into defensive mode – inviting the defending world champions to attack in numbers.

With the greatest respect to the likes of Ezri Konsa and dear old Dan Burn, the duo of Saka and Eze should have been brought into the heat of battle long before the others even started warming up.

It was always said as it came into being late in his managerial career, Sir Alf Ramsey really didn’t get the concept of substitutions. He famously took Sir Bobby Charlton off in a WC quarter-final in Mexico, and then gave in-form striker Kevin Hector 90 seconds at Wembley in the game that saw Poland knock out England of out the 1974 World Cup.

To give Marcus Rashford and Ivan Toney four minutes at the end on Wednesday night was almost as laughable as Stan and Ollie delivering that piano up those stairs all those years ago.

It was almost as if, at 1-0, Tuchel, with nearly half the game still to play, wanted to set about making sure England didn’t lose.

The legendary Martina Navratilova once said: “You cannot achieve success if your only goal is avoid failure.”

There is actually a saving grace – the 2-1 defeat, while a bitter pill to swallow, could have been far, far worse. It was effectively one way traffic in that last 20 minutes – so would any of us have been surprised if Argentina, with clearly their tails up, had got another two or three? They hit the post twice and Jordan Pickford played out of his skin.

Imagine how we’d all be feeling on the back of a 4,5 or 6-1 thumping.

Post game, amid the disappointment and ongoing England frustration,came the unfurling of a politically motivated banner regarding the Falklands conflict by some of the Argentina players. Imagine the victorious West German side in the aforementioned game at Leon in Mexico in 1970 displaying a banner after extra time that said Uncle Adolf was a great man or something similar? It won’t change the result, nor do I want it to, but the FA must make an official complaint to FIFA – at the very least the Argentinian FA should be heavily fined, with the money going to veterans charities in the UK.

As for Tuchel, like politics, a week in football can be a long time. Last Saturday I had an amazing time with Harty Junior in Miami seeing us beat Norway.

But after the almost farcical scenes in Atlanta I think he’s a busted flush. Let’s get the meaningless ‘bronze’ final against the French out of the way on Saturday, and then move forward.

In the 96-year history of the World Cup, a foreign manager has never been in charge of a team lifting the trophy – every champion has had a manager from their own country.

Could the 2030 competition, predominantly in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, see that stat finally altered? With Pep Guardiola established in the England dugout in four years’ time, could football finally be coming home after 64 years of hurt? Well, an extremely reliable source in the world of football claims Pep has said it’s his dream job, so you never know...