Nicky Butt Urges Mainoo to Snub Nonsense Third-Place Play-Off
Nicky Butt has never been one for half-measures. On the eve of England’s World Cup third-place play-off against France, the former Manchester United midfielder has urged Kobbie Mainoo to refuse to play – and insisted Thomas Tuchel should be sacked after the semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Mainoo, 21, forced his way into Tuchel’s final tournament squad on the back of a superb second half of the season at Old Trafford under interim boss Michael Carrick. He arrived at the World Cup as one of the most talked‑about young midfielders in Europe.
He will leave it without a single minute on the pitch.
Seven games. Seven times on the bench. Not once called upon as England’s campaign built, then broke, in that agonising semi-final loss to Argentina on Wednesday night.
Now, with Tuchel expected to ring the changes for Saturday’s third-place game (10pm BST), Mainoo is suddenly tipped to start. For Butt, that is precisely the problem.
“I do not know what is going on there, there’s something not quite right with it,” Butt said. “Now they’re going to play the bomb squad in the stupid third-place game.
“I’d just refuse to play if I was Kobbie Mainoo. I’d say I was injured. It’s a nonsense game, especially when you’ve been treated like that.
“He’s not played a minute of football, now to go and start this pointless jumped-up friendly and potentially get injured for the whole season… no.”
The pressure finally told in that semi-final, not just on the players but on the man in the dugout. Tuchel’s caution, his conservatism, has become the central argument around England’s exit. Butt does not soften his view for a second.
Butt: ‘No way Tuchel can stay on’
For Butt, the debate over Tuchel’s future is already closed.
“There’s no way he [Tuchel] can stay on. Not a cat in hell’s chance after that,” he said. “If he stays on, John McDermott [the FA’s technical director] needs to be sacked as well.
“There’s no way you can keep him now. He’s not a Sir Bobby Robson or Kevin Keegan, someone that the nation loves.
“You’re talking about a manager that’s come in and played negative football, crazy negative football, in the semi-final against a beatable Argentina team.
“And it shouldn’t really matter, but people will go against him because he’s German as well, so he’s going to have a nightmare.
“He’s an unbelievable club manager, so just let him go. He won’t want to stay. He might say he does, but deep down he’ll be thinking, ‘pay up, I’m out of here’.”
In Butt’s eyes, the World Cup has exposed the gap between Tuchel the elite club operator and Tuchel the international figurehead. The stakes, the tempo, the emotional temperature of the England job – all of it, he suggests, has brought out the worst tactical instincts at the worst possible time.
Successors lined up – but not Guardiola yet
Butt does not stop at criticism. He names names.
“If we were nine months down the line, I’d definitely be going for Pep Guardiola,” he admitted. “But Pep can’t leave Man City a month ago, saying he needs a rest from football, and then go straight back in. He can’t do that.”
So the FA, in his view, must look elsewhere. Two candidates stand out: Eddie Howe and Mauricio Pochettino.
“Eddie Howe would be brilliant. I’d love him to go in, it’d be great,” Butt said, pointing to the Newcastle manager’s reputation for progressive football and detailed coaching.
Then there is Pochettino, whose history with McDermott could yet prove decisive.
“Mauricio Pochettino’s got an unbelievable relationship with John McDermott. When McDermott was the academy manager at Tottenham, Pochettino was the manager, and they had a really, really good relationship.
“I was in and around it with the Manchester United academy, we would do training camps there so I’ve seen it first hand.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened and I wouldn’t be against it at all. He’s a very, very good manager. A likeable person, plays good football everywhere he goes.
“But we all said the same about Tuchel, yet when they go into that England dynamic, they just change, it’s crazy. I can’t put my finger on why.”
A third-place game, a frozen-out midfielder, a manager under fire. For Butt, England stand at a crossroads: protect a young talent, clear the dugout, and start again – or double down on a project he believes has already run its course.
