Thomas Tuchel has been back around the Premier League grounds this season and it is worth dwelling on one particular interaction he had with a colleague inside a VIP enclosure, which has doubtless been repeated elsewhere. “People are killing me,” the England manager said. At which point he might have added: Still.
It is two months since England’s 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina in the United States and the emotion tied up in it continues to swirl. Heartbreak, pain, frustration; everything in this kind of area has touched everybody with an investment in the team. It was a result to leave scars that may never heal.