Tuchel was Chelsea head coach for memorable victories in the finals of the UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup while assisted by Anthony Barry, the man still often spotted in deep conversation with him on the touchline as the drama unfolds for England across the Atlantic at the World Cup.

Interestingly, the German is only the latest England head coach with a Chelsea connection over the past eight decades, starting with the very first of them – Walter Winterbottom.

A Manchester United star before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Winterbottom made 22 guest appearances for the Blues in the wartime regionalised league between 1941 and 1943. More importantly, it was at Stamford Bridge that he discovered a passion for coaching and tactics that he would bring to the England manager role between 1946 and 1962.

His progressive ideas were ahead of their time, though, and his reputation is unfairly hung on a stunning 1-0 loss to the USA at the 1950 World Cup. Winterbottom’s approach was hindered by having to field teams picked by a sprawling committee including, in the final year of his tenure, a Grimsby fish merchant. Yet his ideas influenced successors such as Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson.

The Blues’ next England manager connection came with the caretaker appointment of another wartime guest player at the Bridge, Joe Mercer, in 1974. The Everton man was merely keeping the hotseat warm for Don Revie, who was in turn replaced in 1977 by a genuine Chelsea discovery.

Ron Greenwood began his playing career at the Bridge. His family had relocated from Lancashire to west London and as a teenager he was was among a batch of hopefuls selected to train with Chelsea in the very early days of manager Willie Birrell’s juniors project.

This was ultimately delayed until World War Two was over, but the records show that Greenwood played centre-half against Queens Park Rangers in one of the very first Chelsea Juniors matches in May 1940.

World War Two then whisked Greenwood elsewhere and it was only in 1952 that he returned to the Fulham Road to play under former England striker Ted Drake. Although he played 21 times as the Blues broke our league title duck in 1954/55, Greenwood missed the celebrations, having switched to Fulham in March 1955.

A student of Winterbottom’s approach as manager of West Ham United, he was elevated to the nation’s top football job in 1977 and hired Don Howe as assistant (a role Howe would later fulfil at Stamford Bridge under Ian Porterfield). Greenwood’s reign was not a success, but his legacy is in handing first caps to Glenn Hoddle and the country’s original black international, Viv Anderson, in November 1978.

The role became vacant in 1982 and, this time, the official song of 1982 claimed, more than any other time, England would get it right. The choice to lead the national side post-Greenwood was Bobby Robson – whose royal blue connection was minor but formative for him personally.

An impressive young head coach from the North East, Robson had been sacked by Fulham in November 1968 after a long spell of bad form and was seriously questioning his future. ‘Here, at one of my lowest ebbs,’ the amiable Geordie wrote in his autobiography, ‘one of my favourite people enters the narrative.’

Out of the blue came a call from Blues boss Dave Sexton and an offer of work. ‘Dave's phone call in those dark winter days was a lifeline. He was then managing Chelsea and wondered whether I would scout for him at an Ipswich Town-Nottingham Forest game. Naturally, I jumped at the chance.’

While working for the Londoners at the City Ground on 21 December, Robson was approached by Ipswich director Murray Sangster and took an instant shine to him.

‘There was something about that chance encounter that prompted me to apply in writing for the vacant manager's job at Ipswich - the warm, eccentric, spirited Suffolk club that was to become my domain for the next 13 years.’

Robson retained an affection for Chelsea because of that sliding doors moment and led England thrillingly at Italia 90, reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 1966.

He was succeeded at the helm by a man totally steeped in blue – Terry Venables. Scouted for Chelsea Juniors by the brilliant talent spotter Jimmy Thompson, the east-ender was dubbed ‘king of the kids’ by Tommy Docherty, who oversaw a youthful revolution at the Bridge in the mid-Sixties.

Midfielder, headstrong skipper, free-kick specialist, FA Youth Cup and League Cup-winner, Venables often countermanded his manager on the pitch and the pair fell out, especially after the Blackpool incident when players broke curfew and were sent home.

Reluctantly sold to Tottenham Hotspur, Venables faced and beat his alma mater in the 1967 ‘Cockney’ FA Cup final, then built a reputation as a brilliant schemer while manager of QPR, Barcelona and Spurs. The offer to answer his country’s call came in 1994 and he looked to Sexton and Howe for backroom staff. The roller-coaster ride of hope that followed inspired the song ‘Three Lions’.

When Venables’ time was up in 1996, the FA approached Chelsea’s impressive young manager Glenn Hoddle and he accepted the offer.

Hoddle’s switch ended an association that began with injury recuperation and continued with the start of the club’s root-and-branch transformation over three years. Ruud Gullit took up the reins from Hoddle and Chelsea won major silverware after a 21-year wait. Hoddle’s fascinating renovation of England proved less successful, with a round of 16 exit at France 98.

More recently, under Gareth Southgate, our two-time Golden Boot-winning striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and our assistant manager since 2011 - including for our legendary Champions League win in Munich - Steve Holland became key members of the coaching set-up that were runners-up in the 2024 Euros.

And so to Tuchel, appointed Chelsea head coach in January 2021. The German built on Frank Lampard’s Champions League progress to scoop the European crown against Manchester City in Porto four months later and, in February 2022, he added the Club World Cup to the Blues’ trophy cabinet.

Now, 18 months into his England incumbency, can the former Chelsea man bring a World Cup trophy back to England on the international stage?