Morgan Gibbs-White reveals key message from Thomas Tuchel after initial England squad snub

Morgan Gibbs-White has revealed he was upset to be initially excluded from Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad but praised the manager for the incredible impression he has made on his new players.

The Nottingham Forest attacking midfielder was a surprise omission on Friday when Tuchel named his 26-man group to face Albania and Latvia this month and told the German he thought he deserved to be in the squad.

But he was soon called up anyway, when the injured Cole Palmer withdrew on Sunday and said Tuchel’s call left him with a grin the width of his face.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It was about four or five o'clock on Sunday. The manager, Thomas, sent me a message to say, ‘are you free to talk?’ And I think I replied within like 30 seconds ‘yeah’.

“He phoned me up and said, ‘are you still upset with me, or do you want to come and join us and fancy training tomorrow?’

“Obviously, there’s no question there. I said I'd obviously love to come and join and train with the boys, so I found out Sunday late afternoon-ish and I was just smiling from ear to ear.”

Gibbs-White said he was less happy with the news Tuchel had initially delivered as he had hoped that his performances in taking Forest to third in the Premier League would be rewarded.

“Obviously I was upset,” he said. “Yeah, a little bit disappointed. But at the same time, you also have to look at the quality of players that England have at the minute, so I took that into consideration.

“But when he told me, I respected his decision. The standard of players, like I said, is top level. I said to him back like ‘I feel like I've done enough to get the call-up, considering the form level that we were in, but obviously you're the manager, you make the decisions, and I respect that totally’.”

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Even though Tuchel had opted not to pick him at first, Gibbs-White has been impressed with the way England’s first German manager has made an immediate mark.

He explained: “I feel like it was, for him, important to try and get that bond straight away with players because he's used to club football, so he's used to spending time every day with players. I felt like it was the top from him, really good that, that he sort of started that relationship before even meeting us, which is really good.”

Gibbs-White said Tuchel’s first address to his team was “short and sharp”, adding: “He was very intense. He was very sure. It was almost like he knew, he believed in what he wanted. That's the sort of message I got.

“He believed in his own ideas, he believed in what he wants, and I feel like when you have someone that believes in like what they want, you believe it as well.”