‘I’m not overawed by this’: Lee Carsley impresses on his England entrance

on a few occasions mainly when Lee carsley has been behind the wheel of his car the radio has been on in England have been the subject under discussion he admits that his mind has wandered off essentially to the size of the challenge that now confronts him carsley may only be the football association's interim replacement for Gareth Southgate slated to take charge of the upcoming Nations League ties against Republic of Ireland and Finland and probably the sets of fixtures in October and November two yet he is still about to become only the 20th person to lead the team following in the footsteps of giants part of an elite group that began with Walter winterbottom and Sir Alf Ramsay and has taken in among others sir Bobby Robson and Terry venables given Carley's Club level experience of being a number one extends no further than caretaker spells with Coventry and Birmingham plus a brief period in charge of brenford yes you had better believe there have been Pinch Me moments it's almost like it sort of hits you the responsibility carsley saidou may be listening to the radio and they're talking about England and you're thinking that's interesting I might need to listen to a bit more of that but no the responsibility is a big thing more broadly carsley maintained that his life had not altered one bit since his promotion from his job with the England under 21s which raised a few eyebrows as he announced his first Squad at St George's Park carsley got a similar reaction with another of his key messages that he had absolutely not thought about Landing the job on a full-time basis which make no mistake he would be in the frame for if he did well against Ireland Finland and a little beyond the 50-year-old said he had learned from previous experiences As a caretaker when he spent too much energy thinking about what might lie ahead that he almost overlooked the job in front of him he said he would be perfectly happy to return to his role with the under 21s had he been asked by the fa whether he wanted to step up from interim to the full-time post as South G did no he replied why not say that he wanted it where was the harm and yet the more that carsley spoke the more he advertised his credentials albeit in a disarmingly unassuming way he described himself as a safe Pair of Hands and by that he meant someone who perfectly understood The rhythms of an international window the kind of sessions that the players needed given the quick turnaround of games and the physical restrictions that some would be under carsley knows many of them from under 21 level he was always going to call up a clutch of his European Championship winning team from the summer of 2023 the most eye-catching example of his faith being the selection of the Le Central midfielder Angel goms furthermore carsley is familiar with the workings of the fa he has long been embedded in the system and other s have shown how an internal promotion can lead to stunning success think of Argentina with Lionel colon or Spain with Luis delafuente it also has to be a factor that carsley would be significantly cheaper than say a manager at a Premier League club it was put to carsley that in every carefully curated coaching career there had to be a moment when you simply had to go for it what you have to jump in yeah I suppose there is he replied I'm not s here having managed one season in the premere league one season in the championship been on sky and done a bit of punditry I've built really strong foundations from driving the minius at Coventry for the under 18s too doing the under 15s on a Wednesday night to coaching the college team at solah Hall on a Wednesday afternoon to where I am today that's why I don't feel overw by this situation in terms of the expectancy every time we'd pick an under 21's team we expect to win we expect to play in a certain way I can't see that being any different with the senior team if they come in and they feel that and believe that I think we can have a really good three months carsley has never faced a grilling on this scale all of the pressure points of his selection being pressed hard if it was a tough phone call to Kieran tripa the suspicion being that it led the Newcastle fullback into announcing his International retirement then it cannot have been an easy one with Kyle Walker either telling him that he was not in did owe those to Aaron ramsdale Lewis dunk Joe Gomez Adam Wharton and Ivan Tony it was important we put our own mark on the squad carsley started off when asked about Walker he would clarify that Walker who has not kicked a ball for Manchester City this season remained a part of his plans there was the standard Trent Alexander Arnold inquiry carsley sees him as a right back and the inevitable questions about how England managers tended to be treated focusing on Southgate at Euro 2024 had that put carsley off no not really it was a polished performance from carsley he scored points in particular when he talked about his desire for consistent control of the ball for attacking intent as an aside this could be where goms comes in Angel is very technical he controls the game with his skill and technique carsley said our eye is not used to seeing that kind of player but when we watch a Portugal or Spain team we think a I really like that number 10 we will be quite flexible I won't always just play two holding midfielders you might see some attacking players play a little deeper for carsley the adventure is a foot the opportunity there to be seized he might protest but everything has changed