“A funny quote for you,” Thomas Tuchel says as he prepares to lead England in the World Cup semi-final against Argentina on Wednesday but peeks back at a subject that has attracted a few column inches of late. “You don’t have to be a horse to be a good jockey.”
It is a line made famous by Arrigo Sacchi in 1987 when he was appointed as the manager of Milan despite being a relative unknown and having had no professional playing career. It worked out pretty well for Sacchi, just as it has done for Tuchel, who was forced to hang up his boots as a 24-year-old after a knee injury. He played no higher than the Bundesliga 2 with Stuttgart Kickers and spent time at SSV Ulm, a semi-professional club in the third tier. “I had a mediocre career at best,” Tuchel says.