Nicky Butt Urges Mainoo to Skip Stupid Third-Place Play-Off

Nicky Butt has lit a fuse under England’s bruised World Cup campaign, urging Kobbie Mainoo to refuse to play in Saturday’s third-place play-off against France and insisting Thomas Tuchel should be sacked after the semi-final defeat to Argentina.

Mainoo, 21, fought his way into Tuchel’s squad on the back of a superb second half of the season at Manchester United, thriving under interim boss Michael Carrick and forcing himself into the international conversation. He made it all the way to the World Cup. He has not kicked a ball.

Seven matches. Seven times on the bench. Not a single minute.

Now, with England out after a heartbreaking semi-final loss on Wednesday night, Tuchel is expected to ring the changes for the France game in Doha on Saturday (10pm BST), with Mainoo in line for his first taste of the tournament.

Butt’s message? Don’t do it.

‘I’d just refuse to play’

The former United midfielder did not bother softening his words.

“I do not know what is going on there, there’s something not quite right with it,” Butt said, questioning Mainoo’s treatment across the tournament.

“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.”

For Butt, the issue is respect as much as risk. In his eyes, a player who has been overlooked throughout the campaign should not be thrown in when the stakes have dropped and the spotlight has dimmed.

The pressure of a semi-final against Argentina? Mainoo watched it. The dead rubber for third place? Suddenly, he is useful.

‘Crazy negative football’ and no way back for Tuchel

Butt did not stop at Mainoo. He turned the fire on Tuchel and the Football Association, insisting the German has no future in the job after England’s exit.

“There’s no way he [Tuchel] can stay on. Not a cat in hell’s chance after that,” Butt 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.”

The performance against Argentina clearly rankled. England had a path to the final. Butt believes Tuchel shut it down with his approach.

And there is another layer. Butt argued that Tuchel’s nationality will only intensify the hostility around him after a high-profile failure.

“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’.”

Howe, Pochettino… but not yet Pep

If Tuchel goes, who comes next? Butt already has names in mind.

“If we were nine months down the line, I’d definitely be going for Pep Guardiola. 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 most decorated coach in the club game, in Butt’s view, is one for later. The here and now, he argues, should belong to a different profile of manager.

“Eddie Howe would be brilliant. I’d love him to go in, it’d be great.”

Howe’s work at Newcastle has impressed Butt, but he also sees a powerful candidate in Mauricio Pochettino, whose history with McDermott could shape the FA’s thinking.

“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.”

That last line lingers. England managers arrive with reputations for bold, front-foot football. They so often end up accused of caution, of fear, of compromise.

Mainoo now stands at the intersection of that wider debate. A young midfielder, fresh from a breakout season, asked to salvage a sliver of pride in a game Butt dismisses as “pointless”.

Does he play and take his long-awaited bow on the global stage? Or does he follow the advice of a former United stalwart and sit this one out, making his own quiet statement about how England used him this summer?