There will be just one Chelsea player in the England squad this summer as Thomas Tuchel tries to lead the Three Lions to that ever-elusive World Cup trophy, with the likes of Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill left off the final 26-man squad announced this morning.
In Colwill’s case (or in the case of Trevoh Chalobah, even), that’s not a surprising development. He’s only just returned from the ACL injury he suffered last year and prior to that, was barely on the fringes of the team. Equally, Chalobah only got
a brief look-in from Tuchel, who also didn’t seem to rate him much back in his Chelsea days.
Tuchel did rate Cole Palmer quite highly, but it’s not been a great season from Palmer, and that’s now cost him a place. Tommy T was never shy of telling it how it is, and that’s the case now as well.
“It was one of my most difficult phone calls [but] I think he suffers from, first of all, a lack of individual form within his club. He was not as decisive or as influential as he was in the last seasons, throughout the whole season.
“Second of all, he was not very influential with us. His record with us was just not outstanding, not good enough to make him ‘no matter what, he is coming’. That is just the reality of it. He had to pull out several times injured, and when he was in camp he did not have the impact that we all wanted to push him for.”
“I respect his quality and his very unique personality, he was never a problem in camp. I think his personality helps him, even, in big moments to not show nerves and to be decisive. But to have these moments you need also to be in shape, you need to be influential within this group and he has just failed to prove it on a consistent level. [He] competes on the position where it’s maybe the most difficult to compete for. […] Obviously he’s one of the most prominent names that we leave out, but I refuse to bring players for the name and I refuse to then play them out of position just to give them something. I prefer to have the tough decision beforehand, digest it and then push everyone else.”
-Thomas Tuchel; source: Indepedent
Oof. No lies detected, alas.
So, it’s up to Reece James to keep the Blue Flag flying high in North America. Tuchel loves Reecey, always has, so our captain will have a great chance to make a big impact on the international stage as well.
Good luck, Reecey & TT!
