Rooney Backs Tuchel as England Coach, Guardiola a Possible Alternative
Wayne Rooney believes the Football Association should stand by Thomas Tuchel as England head coach – unless the game’s ultimate prize, Pep Guardiola, suddenly comes into play.
Tuchel has survived the immediate inquest after England’s 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina on Wednesday, a night when a 1-0 lead slipped away late and his substitutions came under heavy fire. The German has made it clear he intends to stay on and lead the Three Lions into Euro 2028, and for Rooney, that still makes sense.
But only up to a point.
Rooney: Tuchel or Pep – nobody else
Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, the former England captain backed Tuchel while drawing a sharp line around the debate.
"I don't see anyone else out there at the minute, unless you go and get Pep Guardiola. If Pep is available, then maybe you go and get him," Rooney said.
That was the crux of it. No call for a reset. No clamour for a fashionable outsider. For Rooney, it is Tuchel or Guardiola, and nobody in between.
"I think he is a top-class manager and what the top managers do, they learn from the mistakes and they improve and get better," Rooney added, stressing that one painful World Cup exit should not automatically trigger the sack.
The question, in his eyes, is simple: if you pull the plug, who actually comes in?
"If we sack him, what managers are we going to bring in? And I don't think there's anyone out there who's as good as Thomas Tuchel, unless Guardiola."
World Cup scars and Capello echoes
Rooney did not gloss over Tuchel’s shortcomings. The semi-final defeat exposed a familiar flaw in England’s modern history: a coach brilliant in club football, but still learning the unique rhythm of a World Cup.
"But the big thing for me is he's not experienced at World Cups. We had the exact same with [Fabio] Capello," Rooney said.
Capello arrived with a fearsome reputation and a bulging CV. He left with the sense that tournament football is its own beast. Rooney sees Tuchel at the start of that same journey.
"The World Cup is different and you need to feel that environment and now he's felt it."
That experience, he argues, is now banked. Tuchel has taken the hit. The scars are there. England, and the FA, must decide whether to let him grow from it or tear it all up.
Contract questions and mixed messages
Tuchel’s position is complicated by the timing of his deal. Appointed in January 2025 on an 18‑month mission explicitly framed around winning the World Cup, he then signed a two-year extension in February, before the tournament had even begun.
The FA had already sounded out Guardiola before turning to Tuchel, with reports of a verbal agreement in place at one stage. Guardiola never came. Tuchel did – and was handed a longer runway before a ball was kicked in the World Cup.
Rooney finds that logic hard to square.
"I think the FA told us that Thomas Tuchel was coming in to win the World Cup and take us to the next level," he said.
"It's a little bit strange if its priority was to win the World Cup, but then you get a two-year contract before you actually go to the World Cup. That's a bit strange."
The message was clear: if the World Cup was the defining test, why secure the manager’s future before he had faced it?
Stick or twist?
Now the FA stands at a familiar crossroads. Tuchel wants to stay. The squad, shaped in his image, is built to peak again at Euro 2028. The World Cup failure burns, but the framework is in place.
Rooney’s stance cuts through the noise. You back Tuchel to learn, adapt and come again – or you make the kind of move that changes everything and somehow lure Guardiola into the England job.
Anything else, in his view, is a step down.
