OLIVER HOLT: FA can’t hold on Pep’s determination, give Carsley the job
The FA’s approach for Pep Guardiola about being the next England manager should not be a surprise. It would have been remiss if they had not given it a shot, however unlikely the prospect might seem and however much money they might have to pay.
Who wouldn’t want a genius leading England into the 2026 World Cup? Who wouldn’t want the pre-eminent coach of his generation at the head of an outstanding crop of players who have gone close in three of the last four major tournaments and should be contenders again in North America?
The news, which emerged on Monday afternoon, after the England squad had flown back from Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Finland in Helsinki, casts a new light on the tortured evasiveness of interim manager Lee Carsley every time he has been asked about whether he wants the job full-time.
Carsley can hardly say he wants the job full-time if he knows the FA are pursuing a candidate with Guardiola’s stellar record. And because he is a loyal man, nor can he betray the FA’s confidence by betraying a confidence. Suddenly, it makes sense why he has been talking in riddles.
If there is one thing that is troubling about the pursuit of Guardiola, though, it is the way that Carsley has been left to swing in the wind and the FA appear to have abandoned the idea of establishing a coaching pathway through St George’s Park to the nation’s top job.
Unless the FA had a firm indication that Pep Guardiola wanted the England job in the summer, they should have given Lee Carsley the full-time job immediately
Carsley has fulfilled every criterion for the FA to promote from within but they’re dithering
It is their indecision to blame, not his – they should end the circus and give him the job
They have allowed the appointment of the successor to Gareth Southgate to become a saga and Carsley has been the fall guy in all of it. Does he want it? Does he not want it? A decision about who manages a football team has turned into a version of The Trial.
It didn’t need to be like this. It should never have been like this but it is increasingly clear this is not a question of Carsley’s indecision. It is the FA’s indecision that is to blame. Carsley is their man, he has come through their system and they have left him hanging.
The FA should have stopped this before it started. Unless they had a firm indication that Guardiola wants the England job in the summer when his contract at Manchester City runs out, they should have given Carsley the job full-time as soon as Southgate resigned after the Euros.
The same applies now. If Guardiola has not responded to their approach, the FA should stop gambling on the possibility he might take the helm, stop dithering and give the job to Carsley.
As for the reports that he doesn’t want the job, I wouldn’t want the job either if I had been hung out to dry the way he has by the FA and I knew that Guardiola was the preferred option.
The governing body could fix that tomorrow by telling him they believe he is the man to take England forward and giving him a contract to prove it. I suspect that, then, his reservations about the post might disappear.
It was never going to be easy to follow Southgate, who took England to two finals and a semi-final in the last four major tournaments and was an excellent and skilled communicator with the media.
But Carsley has already begun to fulfil his remit by overseeing a gentle evolution in the senior side. His decision to place the unheralded Angel Gomes at the heart of the side has been a success, he has rehabilitated Jack Grealish and put his faith in the sublime abilities of Trent Alexander-Arnold. All have rewarded him with the quality of their performances.
Spain have been rewarded handsomely for putting faith in youth coach Luis de la Fuente
Carsley has already put his stamp on the side, one example being Jack Grealish’s rehabilitation
He must undergo a trial that no rivals such as Eddie Howe would have been asked to endure
The FA talk about their ‘pathway’ and they talk about the importance of the progression of English-based coaches through the system at St George’s Park and the example that that will set when those coaches are successful.
And then, when they are presented with a coach like Carsley, who fulfilled every criterion they could want by leading England’s Under-21s to victory in last year’s European Championship, who should have been the pathway’s golden child, the FA lose their nerve.
They will never, ever get a better opportunity to promote from within and establish the kind of line of succession followed so fruitfully by Argentina with Lionel Scaloni and by Spain with Luis de la Fuente.
But either the FA got scared or they got greedy. Maybe, initially, they feared the public reaction to giving the job to someone like Carsley, whose appointment won’t move the dial on social media.
Or maybe they really believe they can get Guardiola. Or maybe they thought they could get Jurgen Klopp. Or maybe it’s Thomas Tuchel they want. Or maybe they think it’d be a good idea to exhume the career of Jose Mourinho.
Roy Keane, a twinkle in his eye, did his bit to stir the pot at the weekend by telling the FA to go out and get Guardiola. Straw-clutchers among England fans everywhere noted that he refused to rule out taking the England job, in an appearance on Italian television.
Carsley’s reservations would likely vanish if the FA endorsed him and put faith in him
Appointing him would send out the right message to younger English coaches in the pathway
Whatever the explanation, the way that Carsley is being left to front it up while the top FA executives leave him dangling is an increasingly unappealing, unedifying and uncomfortable spectacle.
If the FA really had faith in what they are doing at St George’s Park, if they wanted to put their mouth where there money is and recoup a reward for the tens of millions they have poured into the National Football Centre, if they wanted to send out the right message to aspiring English coaches, if they wanted to reward a coach who has actually won a trophy with an England team, they would call a halt to the increasingly absurd trial of Lee Carsley and give him the full-time job tomorrow.
When sport really is a matter of life and death
The ParkRun at Tokoinranta follows a stunning route around two bays on the edge of Helsinki city centre. A hundred people turned out for the run on Saturday morning, some of them England fans in the city for the match against Finland the next day.
Towards the end of the run, I fell into (slightly breathless) conversation with Jimi, a student at Helsinki University. Jimi talked about the small town of 5,000 people he came from and how he loved it there.
And he talked about the great tradition of middle-distance running in the country that now seems lost. And he talked about how, since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, young men like him all over Finland have been required to refresh their national service training so they are better equipped to meet the threat from their bellicose neighbour.
One of the reasons he was doing the run that morning, he said, was to keep in shape so that he would be ready should the time come when he had to fight. Often, sport is talked about as something that offers a respite from reality but when Vladimir Putin lives next door, respite is harder to find.
Keeping Ten Hag on just delays the inevitable
Manchester United play Brentford at Old Trafford on Saturday and already there is talk that it is a game Erik ten Hag must not lose if he wants to avoid the sack.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his lieutenants at Ineos had the chance to put Ten Hag and the club out of their misery at the start of the international break but they chose not to take it.
Manchester United have been going backwards under Erik ten Hag for a long time. They are simply delaying the inevitable by not putting him out of his misery
It has become increasingly obvious, since well before the end of last season, that the club is going backwards under the Dutchman.
The delay in replacing him is pointless and costly. All that happens now is that he limps by on a game-by-game basis, the pressure on him and his players unrelenting.
All United have done is postpone the inevitable.
