It was all going so well. Lee Carsley looked like England's answer to Luis de la Fuente, the Football Association's in-house hero. After victories in his first two matches as interim manager, Carsley was touted as the obvious heir to Gareth Southgate - another endearingly humble character, but with a greater sense of adventure than his predecessor. However, Carsley didn't just take the handbrake off against Greece last week, he slashed his own tyres, and the resulting car crash killed the caretaker's candidacy.
Maybe the FA had already decided to go in a different direction, of course. And maybe Carsley never really wanted the job. It was certainly hard to know for sure, with the Under-21s coach constantly contradicting himself when it came to fielding questions over his ambitions - which didn't help dispel the suspicion that he wasn't the right kind of character for the job anyway. But is Thomas Tuchel?
It emerged immediately after Sunday's win over Finland that Pep Guardiola was the FA's dream appointment - but a dream that was never going to be realised. So, they've instead turned to Tuchel, who is undeniably a world-class coach, but also a deeply divisive figure...