At the end of a tough international break for England which saw Lee Carsley’s side humbled by Greece and the interim manager flip-flopping over his hopes of landing the job full-time, Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett brings us up to speed on the latest news out of Wembley…
What’s happening with the appointment process?
In terms of who’s making the decision, ultimately it’s the Football Association’s CEO Mark Bullingham who will decide who he wants the next England men’s manager to be. But the decision will be made alongside the technical director John McDermott, who is assessing all of the candidates.
He’s the football expert. He’s worked at Spurs’ academy for more than a decade, and he’s a big football man.
It’s McDermott who’s putting a shortlist in place, assessing candidates, and who will make a recommendation to Bullingham – and they will then put that to the FA board.
But the truth is, 90 days after Gareth Southgate resigned, it feels like we’re no closer to that happening. In fact, it probably feels like we’re further away.
The ambiguity with which Lee Carsley has been talking, it’s a bit of a mess in truth.
I don’t understand why they haven’t been talking to other people. We broke the story about 10 days ago that they haven’t spoken to any of the four people we understood were high on their shortlist – Graham Potter, Eddie Howe, Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp.
Three of those four were out of work when Southgate left, but there had been no approach from the FA to speak to any of them.
That was mystifying to me. Even if they’re not top of their lists, these are elite-level managers, why wouldn’t you speak to them, sound them out, and get their thoughts?
I don’t understand why that hasn’t happened. The FA have said, to their credit, it will be a confidential process and have stuck to that religiously. They’re saying nothing on the matter.
Could Pep Guardiola be the next England manager?
We don’t know that England haven’t approached Pep. It’s a confidential process, as we said, the FA are saying nothing. My understanding is Guardiola is very much a dream candidate as far as the FA are concerned, but is it just that? Just a pipedream?
Unless they’ve spoken to his representatives, they’re no clearer than we are in knowing whether it’s a possibility that he could be the next England manager.
We know his contract isn’t up at Man City until the summer. What happens after that is an absolute mystery.
This could be a masterstroke by the FA. We’re talking about all these names they’re not talking to, perhaps behind the scenes they’re talking to Pep. But it’s no clearer, following a timely interview he did on Italian TV on Sunday, whether he wants to take the job.
It’s quite revealing what he said.
If he’s true to his word, it sounds like the FA are no clearer about whether he would be interested in the role or not and that makes all of the situation with what the FA are doing and their process a little more mystifying.
Remember over the weekend the Telegraph broke a big exclusive that Carsley didn’t even want the England job – but he contradicted that story directly yesterday by saying he’s still definitely in the running and not prepared to rule himself out of it.
Everybody on this is a little bit confused. Everyone is trying to find out what the FA are thinking and want to do. But at the moment it’s a bit of a mystery.
Has Lee Carsley blown his chances?
He’s done himself no favours. This flip-flopping, this mish-mash of messaging from Carsley hasn’t done him any favours. He’s a lovely bloke and an excellent coach and the players like him- and that’s why what’s happened is a shame, because he started the job so well both on and off the pitch in the international break last month.
They won both games 2-0 and with a very difficult situation when the media went for him in places about the fact he wasn’t prepared to sing the national anthem, he dealt with that in a very humble and pragmatic way.
But since then he isn’t answering the question directly about whether he wants the job, he’s changing his mind about what the criteria is for the person who gets that job and it’s a bit of a mess. You have to remember that the impression I got was the FA wanted to give the job to Carsley – but they needed to test out whether he could cope with the magnitude of it and all that goes with being the England men’s football manager.
Could he cope with that profile, could he be the ambassador that the FA wanted, the brilliant orator anything like the one Gareth Southgate was before, could he cope with the difficult questions from the media? I think that’s where, in the last international break, he showed himself sadly lacking.
It’s a shame because he’s an excellent coach and has brave ideas but it has backfired for him on the pitch as well. [The performance in] that defeat to Greece, when it could have been worse than 2-1, was very open.
He played so many attacking players there were huge gaps across the midfield and defence and England looked porous – and they have done across a number of games under Carsley, which will be a concern for the FA bosses.
Southgate always said ‘we have incredible talents in this England squad at my disposal but I am not playing fantasy football, I can’t get them all on the pitch’. Carsley has learned that the hard way during this international break.
But beyond what’s happened on the pitch, it’s what’s happened off the pitch… and that lack of clarity in his media messaging will certainly have damaged him in the eyes of the FA bosses.
Was Carsley not prepared for job questions, or did he not take advice?
I think Carsley’s responses have been deeply personal. I know the media managers around the England team, they’re excellent. They’ve worked closely with Gareth Southgate and his brilliant messaging in the past.
I know they have given Carsley really detailed advice here, but when it comes to whether he wants the job or not and how he responds to those questions? That’s a very personal response.
It’s not something the FA media managers can control and I think he’s tied himself up in knots with it.
He’s been a caretaker before, at three clubs – Brentford, Coventry and Birmingham too – and he’s made it clear he’s learned from those experiences, and he doesn’t want to say he wants the job or that he doesn’t. It has led to some very mixed messaging from the interim manager.
It’s left journalists like me, and England fans, scratching their heads about what Carsley wants and where the FA go from here.
In terms of timescales the FA would say, if they weren’t holding a confidential process, that they’re in no rush here. It’s 90 days since Southgate resigned, the World Cup qualifying draw isn’t even until December, the qualifiers themselves don’t begin until late March and the World Cup itself starts in 605 days from now.
There is no rush after a lengthy period where Gareth Southgate took part in four tournaments. There is no rush for them to get someone in post quickly, they can take their time.
But without any messaging from the FA, with that confidential process, Lee Carsley’s mixed messaging to the media, you’ve got a very unsatisfactory situation here where football fans generally, England football fans, England players crucially, don’t know where the men’s senior team goes from here.
Are they trying to impress the next manager, or are they just working for an interim guy who will be gone in the short term?
None of that is satisfactory, which is why it’s a difficult situation for the FA, and it does feel from the outside like it’s a bit of a shambles.