The FA have released footage of Thomas Tuchel’s maiden speech to his players as England manager as the World Cup edges closer – with a clear display of his plan for the tournament set from over a year ago.

Welcoming the England squad to St George’s Park in March 2025, Tuchel sat them down in the meeting room and launched an impassioned monologue to set out the aims of his tenure.

He stood in front of a screen, flanked by assistant Anthony Barry, talking through a list of ‘camps’ – England’s meet-ups under his leadership – including ‘Camp 2’ as ‘Base Camp’ on the way to ‘Mt Everest’.

And it was made clear that he wanted his players ‘arriving as a brotherhood’ at the World Cup – which goes some way to explaining why the likes of Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Harry Maguire, fringe players in qualifying, were left at home last week.

‘The mission of why we are here is very very clear,’ Tuchel told his players in an adrenaline-pumped speech. ‘We want to be world champions. We want to put the second star on our shirt. It’s very important that we just speak about it straight away. The target of this mission is clear. Second star on our shirt.’

In a pumped-up speech, Thomas Tuchel pulled up England’s Mount Everest on the screen 

England’s players seemed engaged as Tuchel talked through his plans for them last year

Tuchel projected England’s own Mount Everest onto the screen, with each international camp in the World Cup build-up marked as the next camp on the ascent. The final tournament represented the summit of Everest, where England hope to bring the World Cup home for the first time since 1966.

‘Today guys, on the first day of the first camp, I was immediately affected, immediately reminded why I wanted this job in the first place.

‘Why I absolutely wanted to have it, and why I got excited about it – the reason is you,’ Tuchel told his players.

The German coach has been big on fostering a team ethic. Jude Bellingham, Foden and Jack Grealish were all left out of an England squad in October and stuck a consistent squad through his ‘camps’ rather than succumb to the stars.

Palmer, Foden, Maguire and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all not at this World Cup in the United States. 

‘So, of course, bad news, huh? You know, it’s bad news. It’s not enough because it’s not only about football,’ Tuchel had told the players in his speech.

‘I spoke to a World Cup winner – he was in two World Cups – and he said the difference between the quarter-final and the win was it was the same level, the same quality of players. But once we arrived as a brotherhood we were ready to die for each other. It would have been no problem if camp was two months because we loved each other. 

‘Let’s build guys, let’s build something special until we arrive in the US. The point is, guys, I want to arrive here,’ he said, pointing to the top of his Everest chart.

‘I’m not even talking about winning. I want to arrive here on top when it gets really tough with the toughest group in the world. 

‘When we sit on the plane and land, we know already this will become a great camp and this will be a team no-one wants to play against. And they will feel it. They will feel it in the mixed zone. They will feel it in the tunnel. They smell it.’

England begin their World Cup campaign in the United States on June 17 against Croatia in Arlington, Texas and they hope their journey will end in New Jersey just under five weeks later as World Cup winners.  

But former England defender Jamie Carragher fears that the Three Lions will find it ‘tough’ during the World Cup and says Tuchel has not got enough top-class players.

Tuchel talked his team through their list of ‘camps’ over the build-up to the World Cup – noting it as their ‘Mt Everest summit’ in his presentation

Tuchel has been big on fostering a team ethic and left out Jude Bellingham last year

‘I do have a little fear,’ Carragher said on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.

‘I think England will find it tough in this tournament, if I’m being totally honest, he said. ‘You look at the squad that’s been picked and there’s a lot of good players in there, but I class a lot of them as good Premier League players.

‘I don’t look at all of them and think, that’s an international player there, and maybe that’s just where we are with the squad at the moment. So, I wouldn’t say I’m the most optimistic right now.

‘I think when you look at the squad, Thomas Tuchel put energy, athleticism, and harmony over talent.

‘I think most people would probably say Harry Maguire is a better player than Dan Burn, but I know he loves Dan Burn in and around the squad. 

‘I know Anthony Barry a little and they put a great story in this togetherness and how we’re going to be as a group for, hopefully, six weeks.

‘But this is bigger than just having talent to play. We can’t have anybody who brings the group down in any way or a negativity that they’re not playing or they’re throwing their arms about.

‘This is about how we’re going to be a team, and he’s not daft, Tuchel; he obviously knows in Foden, Palmer, Trent that they’re probably three of the most technical players we’ve got right now. But they’re not in the squad.’