Saq
It was a case of second thought. Was it Lee Carsley, England’s new, albeit caretaker, manager, laying out the cones for a warm-up exercise on the Aviva Stadium pitch ahead of his first game in charge against the Republic of Ireland on Saturday?
The best coach in the team almost never does that; he delegates to an assistant. But yes, that was Carsley – he did what he did, he went out as he intended to go on. “Well, I have my qualifications,” he said with a smile after overseeing a 2-0 victory that offered reason for optimism, even if the paucity of opposition had to be taken into account.
We learn more about Carsley every day, watching his every move, and it remains “strange” – to borrow a phrase from England captain Harry Kane – to have a new face at the helm after all these years under Gareth Southgate. It is inevitable that there will be comparisons. The adjustment will take time.
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“I don’t want to lose that… one of my biggest strengths is my coaching,” Carsley said when asked about being the cone man before the game. “It’s another chance to influence the players and spend time with them. Even possession [drill] “What we did before the game had a tactical element to it. So that helps. I’ve already talked about the lack of time we spend with the players.”
Morgan Gibbs-White, who made his debut as a 77th-minute substitute, knows Carsley well having played under him with England’s Under-21s. “He’s a very hands-on manager,” said the 24-year-old from Nottingham Forest.
“I think it shows that he believes in his own ideas and seeing that makes us believe in him. It’s obviously a good thing when you hear it directly from the manager on and off the pitch.”
Carsley prefers the tracksuit to the three-piece. He wants to coach rather than manage. And that raises a question, especially after what he experienced the night before the Ireland game – the story of his refusal to sing the national anthem, his first moment of anger before a ball was kicked. Can the England manager be a coach who only works on the pitch? The point Carsley was making was that he is his own master; he could not change even if he wanted to. He will do things his way.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a manager, certainly not,” he said. “I see myself as a head coach. I’ve got a really good support system around me that helps me and takes a lot of pressure off me. It gives me the chance to coach and be on the pitch and hopefully make a difference. That’s the way I’ve got to do it. I couldn’t see myself doing it any other way.” Carsley was asked if he had been clear with the Football Association about how he would approach the job. “I’m really lucky with the people that are my bosses,” he said. “They know what my strengths are and they’re not going to ask me to be something that I’m not.”
“My strength is coaching, being on the field. What I do now [talking to journalists] “It’s not my strong point. It’s something that’s part of the job, as I saw on Friday…”
A brief look at the shemozzle anthem, which must have been a revelation to Carsley – part of which has already been written. When an England manager, born and bred in Birmingham, says he will not sing before kick-off, it is a story, mainly because it is unusual and therefore interesting; likely to provoke discussion.
The ideal would be to focus on and critique the reasons that led Carsley to take this position, also looking at the context, which includes his dual nationality; he is deeply attached to his Irish heritage. England being England, many points of view, most of them vehement, come into play.
It was impressive how Carsley handled the fallout after the match: no hostility, no recriminations, he just carried on calmly. Likewise, he had a great comeback to mock his pre-match seating plan faux pas, having taken up temporary residence on the Irish bench. “As you know, I’ve spent a lot of time on the bench so I know exactly where it is.”
The episode recalls the time in the 1998-99 season when Ron Atkinson, called up to a Caribbean beach to save Nottingham Forest from relegation, accidentally found himself on the visitors’ bench at the City Ground, occupied by Arsenal. He said he looked at Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars, two of Arsenal’s stars, and wondered “how on earth these players could be bottom of the league”.
Carsley is easy to understand; he answers questions as openly as possible. But can he emulate Southgate in terms of reading the thorniest issues of the moment and using the power of his platform to say the right things? Do we need him to do that?
Carsley will be able to count on his close coaching circle and FA technical director John McDermott, with whom he has a close relationship. He met McDermott at a key point in his career, after he was relieved of his duties as assistant manager at Sheffield United in October 2013.
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Depressed and frustrated, Carsley got a job in the Premier League where he studied the training programmes of Arsenal, Aston Villa, West Brom and Tottenham, the club where McDermott worked.
Carsley credits him with opening his eyes to many things, particularly the development side of the game, helping to pave the way for him, and it is no secret that McDermott is now at the heart of the hunt for England’s next permanent manager.
McDermott was spotted chatting to Carsley after the Ireland game, pitchside. What did he say?
“Well done, it’s a good start, we have to win on Tuesday,” replied Carsley. He too is looking forward to seeing Finland at Wembley.
Saq
