Thomas Tuchel admits he has a 'bad conscience' for not checking on England's Man City stars amid guilty verdict on financial 'sham' - and suggests why Jude Bellingham could be his next England captain

· DailyMail

Thomas Tuchel admitted that he regretted not checking in with the Manchester City players in his England squad before kick-off against Czechia.

Thomas Tuchel admitted that he regretted not checking in with the Manchester City players in his England squad before kick-off against Czechia, just hours after the Premier League confirmed a guilty verdict against the club for serious financial breaches.

Daily Mail Sport reported on Friday that the top-flight side had been found to have committed significant breaches of financial regulations between 2009 and 2018, with the Premier League's official confirmation released alongside a bombshell statement on Tuesday.

But despite the seismic news likely rocking players including starters in Prague Elliot Anderson and Marc Guehi, and Nico O'Reilly, who travelled with the squad, Tuchel revealed after the whistle that the over 115 charges had not been on his mind.

> 'I have a bad conscience now,' he told BBC Radio 5 Live when asked if he had spoken to Guehi, Anderson, and O'Reilly. 'I did not actually because I am just focused on everything we have to deal with here and to prepare the team.'

Supporters wondered what had captured the attention of Guehi and O'Reilly in particular after they were snapped at the Fortuna Stadium listening to audio on one of their mobile phones.

While it has not been confirmed what the players were listening to - if anything - club chief executive Ferran Soriano released a video shared with the organisation's 1,000-strong staff doubling down on the club's innocence amid a Premier League 'conspiracy theory'.

Premier League CEO Richard Masters claimed Man City's breaches, which included over £900m-worth of 'sham' deals and deliberate attempts to frustrate the league's investigations, showed the club had ‘systematically broken Premier League rules for nearly a decade’.

After the final whistle in Prague, Tuchel also suggested that Jude Bellingham might follow Harry Kane as England's next captain.

Bellingham took the armband when he replaced skipper Kane 20 minutes from the end of last night's 2-0 Nations League win over the Czech Republic in Prague.

> Asked afterwards if that was a glimpse into the future, the England manager said: 'If you are the captain at the end of these matches, you can for sure be the permanent captain.'

> 'It's a reward. It's good. I think he loves to be with us at the moment. That's what I feel.'

> 'We had a small talk today about his role and said maybe 30 minutes is enough because he hasn't played in this quick turnaround throughout this season.'

> 'He has done it before, but not in this season, so we didn't want to be the first ones to try that.'

> 'But even in this little encounter you can see that he's confident and happy to even help from the bench.'

Tuchel also revealed that Bellingham reported a slight niggle at the end of the game. England play in Croatia on Saturday and then at home to last night's opponent next Tuesday.

> 'Hopefully it's nothing serious and he's available for selection,' said Tuchel.

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