It’s a smart move to go for Lee Carsley as the new England manager over a celebrity boss like Jose Mourinho… the former U21 boss is a bright, innovative, personable man, writes OLIVER HOLT

The FA have made a bold and clever choice in appointing Lee Carsley as England‘s interim manager in the wake of the departure of Gareth Southgate.

They have avoided, so far, the trap of alighting upon a washed-up boss such as Jose Mourinho, just because he has celebrity status and would please the fans for a while.

England have gone down that route before and they have been burned before. 

Fabio Capello was a winner in club football but his reign as England manager was one of the most dispiriting in recent times.

This is the smart move. In many ways, it is the brave move, too, because the FA would have known they would be criticised for a perceived lack of ambition.

The FA have made a bold and clever choice in appointing Lee Carsley as England’s interim boss

Fabio Capello was a winner in club football but his reign as England manager was one of the most dispiriting in recent times

There is no lack of ambition in appointing Carsley. 

He is a winner who led England Under 21s to triumph in the 2023 European Championship, when they won the competition for the first time in 39 years.

They beat Spain in the final of that tournament with a team featuring Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Morgan Gibbs-White. Not many coaches defeat Spanish teams in the finals of anything.

Carsley is a highly-regarded coach, whose teams play clever, technical, confident football and who trusts his players to express themselves on the ball.

Many of the current England senior squad have worked with Carsley in the Under 21s and speak highly of him.

And for those who say that England need a big-name manager to inspire the respect of their big-name players, that is misguided nonsense.

The reality is that England are following the template that has been adopted by the most successful nations in world football.

Lionel Scaloni had no pedigree in club management when he stepped up from Argentina’s youth set-up to lead Lionel Messi, Alexis Mac Allister and the rest to glory at the World Cup in 2022.

England U21s beat Spain in the final of Euro 2023 with a team featuring Cole Palmer

No one sought to suggest that Rodri or Nico Williams thought less of Luis de la Fuente because he had not managed Real Madrid or Barcelona

Lionel Scaloni had no pedigree in club management when he stepped up from Argentina’s youth set-up to lead Lionel Messi

And when Luis de la Fuente, who had spent the last 10 years in the Spain national coaching set-up, led his country to victory over England at last month’s European Championship, no one sought to suggest that Rodri or Nico Williams thought less of him because he had not managed Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Carsley is a bright, innovative, personable man who has worked with this talented crop of England players before and knows how to meld them into a winning formula.

It would have been odd, quite frankly, if the FA had gone for anybody else.