Guardiola's Past Verbal Agreement to Manage England

Pep Guardiola once shook hands on a “verbal agreement” to become England manager before Thomas Tuchel ever walked through the door at St George’s Park – and his name is back on English lips again.

England’s World Cup semi-final collapse against Argentina has reopened an old file at the FA. Tuchel’s side led, then folded late, and the post-mortem has been brutal. His tactics have been pulled apart, his in-game decisions questioned, his future openly debated.

Into that noise, one name cuts through: Guardiola.

The deal that never was

The FA’s interest in Guardiola is not some convenient, post-Argentina fantasy. It runs deeper.

According to The Athletic, the governing body went as far as a verbal agreement with the Catalan to succeed Gareth Southgate. The plan was drawn up, the succession mapped out. Then Guardiola chose to extend his stay at Manchester City instead, ripping up the FA’s preferred script and forcing a change of course.

With Guardiola off the table, England turned to Tuchel. The German was appointed in January 2025, charged with building on Southgate’s work and finally turning promise into trophies.

Now Guardiola is out of work, having left City at the end of last season. By those same reports, he would “presumably” still be open to taking the England job, given he had once agreed to it in principle. The timing, on paper, looks perfect.

Reality is more complicated.

Clauses, conditions and a semi-final run

Emotionally, the clamour is loud. Some fans want Tuchel gone. They see Guardiola as the dream upgrade: a serial winner, a stylistic visionary, a man who knows English football inside out.

Contractually, the picture is very different.

Tuchel’s deal with the FA included specific exit clauses. Both parties could have agreed to part ways if England had crashed out of the World Cup before the quarter-finals. That safety valve was designed to protect the FA if the project went badly wrong.

It didn’t.

There was even a further exemption written in when it became clear England were likely to face Mexico at the Estadio Azteca in the last 16 – a daunting assignment that carried its own risk. Tuchel’s team survived that test, edging a wild 3-2 win in Mexico City.

From there, England pushed on to the last four. Only the fourth World Cup semi-final in the nation’s history. Painful as the exit to Argentina was, it still placed Tuchel in a select group of England managers.

That matters. Because by reaching the semi-finals, England effectively locked those escape clauses away. They were never triggered. The legal and structural framework now points in one direction: continuity.

FA backs Tuchel – for now

Inside Wembley and St George’s Park, the mood is calmer than on the outside. The FA has already reaffirmed its commitment to Tuchel in the wake of the Argentina defeat. There is no appetite, at this stage, to rip up the long-term plan because of one chaotic night.

The governing body has nailed its colours to Tuchel’s mast. Earlier this year, it handed him a contract extension to carry England through to Euro 2028. That was not a token gesture. It was a statement that he is their project coach, not a stop-gap.

Tuchel, for his part, has shown no sign of treating the England job as a stepping stone. When Manchester United came calling in January, testing the water after sacking Ruben Amorim, he turned them away. No flirting, no leverage. He stayed put.

So while the noise around Guardiola grows after every tactical debate show and phone-in, the FA’s position remains anchored. Tuchel stays. The post-tournament review is expected to be procedural, not revolutionary.

Guardiola waits in the wings

And yet, the shadow of Guardiola lingers.

He is a free agent. He has previously agreed, at least verbally, to take the England job. He knows the players, the league, the culture. For a federation that once built a plan around him, the temptation will never fully disappear.

Right now, Tuchel holds the job and the backing. Guardiola holds the intrigue.

If Euro 2028 goes the way England believe it can, this will all be remembered as background noise after a painful defeat. If it doesn’t, the FA already knows exactly where the conversation will go – and exactly who will be at the centre of it.