Who would be the subsequent England boss?

When Lee Carsley breezed through his first two games as interim England manager, very few would have doubted his suitability to take on the job full-time.

An electric win in Dublin, courtesy of ex-Ireland boys Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, followed by a feel-good Wembley victory over Finland, which saw Harry Kane bag a brace in his 100th match, formed a perfect start under the new ‘handbrake-off’ playing style. 

But things, as they often do with England, have turned sour. After a humiliating defeat at home to Greece, not even Carsley himself seems to want the job with the boss saying he would ‘hopefully…be going back to the [under]-21s’.

He then created further confusion following another win over lowly Finland, claiming the Three Lions role was for ‘a world class coach who’s won trophies’ before later stressing that this did not rule him out.

With chaos mounting, Mail Sport takes a look at the runners and riders to succeed Gareth Southgate on a permanent basis.

Lee Carsley 

Two 2-0 wins in the Nations League last month seemed to place the Three Lions on the even keel they desired so dearly after the departure of Gareth Southgate in the summer.

Grealish was pulling the strings behind the striker, Anthony Gordon was sprinting down the wing and Trent Alexander-Arnold was playing with a smile on his face at his favoured right-back position.

October brought a Kane ankle injury and a brain fade. Most England managers wait a tad longer before they spring the bizarre teamsheet reshuffle on the nation but Carsley decided to ring the changes in just his third match.

The 2-1 defeat at the hands of 48th-ranked Greece saw Jude Bellingham as a false nine in a 4-2-1-3 system with Cole Palmer in a deep midfield role. Neither did anything to reassure fans, or the FA, that the interim boss was the right custodian for these prodigious talents long-term.

The 50-year-old has since flip-flopped as to whether even he wants the role and increasingly feels that the only way out of this murky confusion Carsley has created is for him to head back to the under-21s where he is happiest.

It’s difficult not to feel at least an ounce of pity for the stand-in manager but the England job is one of the biggest in world football and FA chiefs have just a few months to line up a boss to take the side into the 2026 World Cup and beyond.

Thomas Tuchel 

Leading the contenders is Champions League-winning head coach Thomas Tuchel, whose profile will appeal to the powers that be for a couple of reasons.

First, he is a steady pair of hands with experience. Carsley does not get to choose his successor or even influence the criteria on which they will be judged, but his suggestion that the next boss should be ‘world class’ hit on something.

Tuchel won consecutive league titles with Paris Saint-Germain before inspiring a mediocre Chelsea side to Champions League glory in 2021. He then lifted a Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

England have not appointed a manager of the German’s pedigree since Fabio Capello and his impressive CV could win over fans fed up with bosses they perceive as being second-rate.

Second, Tuchel is on the market. The best ability is availability and the 51-year-old has been out of work since leaving the German giants at the end of last season. 

In fact, Bild say the coach is currently in talks to take the role and he has previously made it clear he is open to international management, despite links with the Manchester United job in recent months.

Yes, there will be the inevitable baulking at the fact that he is not only not English but from the country which has inflicted immeasurable damage on the Three Lions over the years.

But this will all be forgiven if his pragmatic and professional style takes a side starved of success to a major trophy. It is little surprise to seem him as the odds-on favourite at most bookmakers.

Pep Guardiola  

Shut your eyes, England fans, and transport yourself to a world where the most successful manager of the modern era is leading out Kane and Co at a major tournament.

Okay now open them. Why would a boss with the world at his feet sip from the poisoned chalice that is the Three Lions job and risk tarnishing his reputation?

Well, perhaps his past glories are exactly the reason. Bundesliga? Check. La Liga? Check. Champions League? Check. Premier League? Check.

Pep Guardiola is yet to prove himself on the punishing international stage, where managers are granted just a matter of weeks to work with a team of egos and carry the weight of a nation on their shoulders.

Maybe that could be the perfect final chapter to a perfect career, lining up a peaceful retirement in a Spanish village with a glass of red and a cigar. 

For his part, Guardiola has not ruled it out. On Sunday, he insisted the rumours linking him with England were ‘not true’ but that ‘everything can happen’, while reports have since emerged that he is the FA’s preferred candidate.

Pundit Roy Keane has suggested the Spaniard is the ‘best guy’ and worth waiting until the end of his 2025 contract for, and few Three Lions fans would disagree.

Graham Potter 

Southgate left the England post in July with his fair share of lingering critics but also the knowledge he had presided over the finest eight-year spell in the nation’s recent history, bringing fun and optimism back to the Three Lions.

It seems slightly reductive to suggest this was purely to do with his being from the country he led but if there is a manager to fit the Southgate mold, it’s probably Graham Potter.

Out of the job but not out of enthusiasm and ideas, the former Chelsea boss might have been badly hurt by his time at Stamford Bridge but he is ready to mount a comeback.

During his time at Brighton, he gained a reputation for being progressive and attacking, with a happy knack for getting the best out of young players. 

It all went pear-shaped at Chelsea, the demanding Blues fans quickly running out of patience with a string of bad results, but what better place to prove yourself than with the national side?

On a recent appearance on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Potter smiled wryly when asked about the England job, before enigmatically insisting he was ‘open to anything’.

The only concern is that the 49-year-old seems to fancy a return to club football and he can hardly be blamed. After a tough couple of years, the idea of bringing his stamp to a new side and managing week-in week-out must seem appealing.

Perhaps not the right time, then, for the Englishman and he remains an outsider – for now.

Eddie Howe 

At times, the Newcastle boss has been the heir apparent at St George’s Park and his complicated standing at St James’s over the summer caused many to think his arrival was only a matter of time.

Fast forward a couple of months and his position on Tyneside seems a tad more secure and he recently claimed he had no eyes on the England job despite the long-term interest.

Young, likeable, a tactical visionary, and English. Howe ticks most of the key boxes and if it wasn’t for Southgate’s protracted departure then you would imagine he would already be on the sidelines in a Three Lions tracksuit. 

The downside? His empty trophy cabinet. All England fans ask for is the new man to put an end to 60 years of hurt and Howe has no experience of seeing a team over the line. 

He did, however, take a Magpies side from being on the brink of relegation to their first Champions League appearance in two decades.

Howe remains among the chasing pack, jostling behind frontrunner Tuchel, but it will require the cards to fall perfectly over the next few months for the former Bournemouth man to swoop in. 

Jurgen Klopp  

Nothing seems to be beyond the imagination of England fans and, at times, the outgoing Liverpool manager has, remarkably, been many people’s pick for the next boss.

It took a £10million-a-year move to soft drinks giants Red Bull to finally crush this most fanciful of dreams but a few words, nonetheless, on what might have been.

Jurgen Klopp built his unmistakeable footballing brand on dragging underperforming clubs with high expectations back to the big time.

He did this by ‘taking the handbrake off’, as so many England fans seem to desire, and playing a high-press, attacking style.

But Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund were the perfect fit for Klopp and the slow-moving nature of international football might not have suited his heavy metal, high-octane personality.

Better off sticking to energy drinks, perhaps.