Lee Carsley, future England manager: Under-21s boss deserves Three Lions job after Thomas Tuchel having masterminded second European Championship triumph

Over and over again, we see club managers who can't adapt to the different challenges posed in the international game, and vice versa. The teams who have dominated at international level are rarely managed by those who have enjoyed the bulk of their success in their careers with clubs.

Lionel Scaloni has only managed Argentina's senior and U20 teams;l Spain's Luis de la Fuente's career prior to first taking charge of Spain U21s in 2018 was particularly underwhelming; Didier Deschamps was a credible manager with Monaco, Juventus and Marseille, but will be most remembered as a coach for his work with France; Germany's previous era of serial contention that culminated in 2014 World Cup glory was built on a long-term vision with Joachim Low at the helm.

Managing a football team isn't all about the x's and o's, even despite the tactical nuances and evolutions of the modern game. Limited time on the training pitch means even the most astute of coaches can come unstuck, with Luciano Spalletti the latest high-profile flop after failing to bring silverware back to Italy. Carsley's relative lack of experience away from the England setup should not be a knock on his qualifications to take the Three Lions job.

Of course, England don't even need to look too far to see the benefits of promoting from within and overlooking a coach's club record. Sir Gareth Southgate, who relegated a consolidated Middlesbrough side from the Premier League in 2009 and didn't particularly set the world alight in three years in charge of the Young Lions, is the country's most successful international manager ever after Sir Alf Ramsey, who won the World Cup in 1966.

Though Southgate couldn't quite get England over the line and came under heavy fire for an over-reliance on intangibles over on-field tweaks, he still managed to steer the Three Lions to successive European Championship finals as well as two deep runs at World Cups. He has been widely credited by players, staff and pundits alike for completely changing the mood of the camp at their St George's Park training base, bringing the energy and instilling the camaraderie required to mix it with the very best in the international game. Gone are the days of cliques brought about by club allegiances, and instead, England players look forward to their meet-ups.

Southgate, brought in as an almost reluctant successor to the disgraced Sam Allardyce in 2016, learnt how to deal with the pressures of the country's most important sporting job on the fly. In 2018, he focused on fundamentals and set-pieces to plot a route through the World Cup, before his side became a more complete outfit for the Euros three years later. Only the reigning champions of France and a rare missed penalty from Harry Kane saw them eliminated in 2022, and Southgate's England then battled adversity to reach another Euros final in his last hurrah. All this came off the back of England's most infamous tournament exit in 2016 to Iceland, too.

Carsley, who remains highly regarded by the decision-makers at the Football Association (FA), would be walking into a far smoother situation than Southgate did, whenever that vacancy arises again.

England U21s triumphed this summer despite being unable to call upon key players such as Jarrad Branthwaite, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Rico Lewis, Lewis Hall, Adam Wharton, Kobbie Mainoo, Jobe Bellingham, Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap and Tyler Dibling. A shorthanded team lacking in the star-power of their 2023 triumph took a couple of games to iron out their kinks, and Carsley wasn't afraid to make bold calls, relying upon only two players from the squad that triumphed two years ago - Elliott and centre-back Charlie Cresswell.

"The lazy thing as coaches would be to try and just reproduce what we did last time, but we've done it differently," Carsley said after lifting the trophy. "We thought outside the box with our training, with our tactics, with the way that we wanted to play, with our squad selection. We knew we had the Club World Cup in the background as well, so being able to adapt quickly to pivot if we lost players and make sure we picked the right squad that were able to not only play a lot of the minutes with less recovery time, but play to a good standard."

Winger Jonathan Rowe found success playing as a No.9, while Tino Livramento thrived at full-back after Jack Hinshelwood was brought into defence at the expense of Archie Gray.

Match-winner Rowe alluded to the impact Carsley had on the side following Saturday's victory over Germany in the final: "Grit, perseverance, determination… you name it. We all dug deep, stuck in and we all achieved what we came here to achieve. It's the start of a new wave. We have so much talent in England so it's only right that we utilise it to its full potential. With the right head coach, with the right staff, with the right mindset, with the right people, you can accomplish anything."

Carsley's short stint in interim charge of the England senior side during the second half of 2024 was quite the ride. The Three Lions won five of their six Nations League matches against lesser opposition in Ireland, Finland and Greece, only falling to the latter in the 94th minute at the end of a match in which the boss experimented with an attacking line up.

After the highs and lows of last summer's Euros, Carsley was tasked in the short-term to improve the team's playing style and set up a strong foundation for Tuchel to work with. "We wanted the England team to be exciting to watch, be attacking," he said following his sixth and final match. "I see them day in and day out in the training ground and now people have seen it. I don't think it's a gamble with some of these players, they're excellent players and the mentality is what stands out for them. Any challenge you put in front of them, they want to overcome. Like I've said in the past, especially with the U21 players, they have a history of winning and expect to win when they turn up for England."

This also made Carsley believe he could be Three Lions manager on a permanent basis one day, adding: "I think it's given the staff and myself the confidence that we can do the job. You always doubt yourself whether you can do it or not. We often speak about a lot of England managers sat in the house picking the team and to have the responsibility to do that, the trust from my bosses has been a massive confidence."

It would not be a complete unknown for Carsley, while he is clearly aware that on top of philosophy and entertainment, England is now a nation that needs to win.

One of the most compelling arguments against Tuchel's appointment last autumn was best laid out by Jamie Carragher: "When I think of England, we are so close to winning a major tournament with so much good work that has gone into producing these players at St George's Park, it just doesn't feel right to me that we have a foreign coach. It's not just about England - I don't think Italy should, I don't think Germany should, I don't think France should. Portugal have it at the moment with Roberto Martinez which I find strange. That's my take on it."

There isn't a rule dictating that a national team's manager must be from that same nation. That's true of most sports, actually. You only need to look across the hall at St George's Park at Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses to see the benefits of mixing foreign ideology and leadership with homegrown talent. That said, the noises coming from the FA after Euro 2024 suggested they would prefer to appoint an English coach.

The FA's role is not only to produce the best players, but also elite coaches, which was the added layer to the furore when Tuchel was named Southgate's permanent successor. Gary Neville, once an England assistant manager, said on the hiring of Tuchel: "I am not sure it meets the criteria of St George's Park and the belief in English coaches and the growth in the English teams' performances over the last few years. Not just the men's, but the women's and the youth teams as well. St George's Park was going to be a hotbed of proving that English coaches could get back to the top of European football. It doesn't feel like a strategic decision, it feels like an instinctive one off the back of what's happened in the last two weeks [after losing to Greece].

"Everybody in our country, including myself, will wish him all the best and hope we can get over the line and win a trophy, but I think there are some serious questions for the FA to answer in respect of English coaching. I do think we are damaging ourselves accepting Thomas Tuchel is better than any of the other English coaches.

"We are in a rut when it comes to English coaching. English coaching is one of the least respected big nations in Europe when it comes to taking charge of a football team. Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese coaches are renowned for their styles of play, for their philosophy. We don't have a clear identity as an English nation of what we are anymore. We haven't built a style, we haven't got a coach who's built a style that's unique to us."

It's easy to sit here after the June international window the England seniors just had and focus on the negatives of Tuchel's appointment, but they shouldn't be dismissed as alarmist either. He chose to delay his start from November 2024 to January 2025 and miss out on valuable time in the role. He has overseen a slow start which has been less promising than Carsley's, most recently scraping past Andorra and losing at home to Senegal. He signed a contract that only runs to the end of the 2026 World Cup, by which point he could have several suitors back in the club game ready to hire him.

It very much feels like it's glory in North America or bust for Tuchel. The early signs suggest he may not have the time to create the perfect image of a team at international level the same way he has done in the past for some of Europe's biggest clubs.

Whenever Tuchel vacates his post, Carsley could be interested in the step up again, but remains focused on his current role in the FA's setup: "I'm not sure. I'm very proud of the job that I do and I love working with the players. Obviously, I've had a chance with the senior team as well and I loved that, so the best thing I can do is help the pathway and help the senior team."

But his work hasn't gone unnoticed. Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the FA, sang Carsley's praises after retaining the U21 crown: "I am sure Lee will be humble about what he and the group have achieved, but he should be recognised for this special achievement. Before Lee took over [in 2021], we hadn't won this trophy for 39 years. In two tournament cycles he has won it twice. On top of this exceptional tournament success, he has overseen player development with many U21s making their debut for the senior team."

It's far from a sure thing that Carsley will be the next England manager, but now he undoubtedly deserves his spot in the conversation for the role, and has shown he is indeed qualified to take the reins.