Away from the media attention and once the fans had all left the stadium, Lee Carsley headed to the pitch at Wembley after the emphatic 5-0 win over Ireland to have some quiet photos taken with his family while the ground crew mowed the grass at the stadium. home of football.
Carsley wanted to capture his special moment as a man at the top of English football. That speaks volumes about the kind of man he is: proud, private and for whom family comes first.
It's right and fitting that Carsley went out with a bang as England interim manager – it's the least he deserved after being hounded by the media, some of whom tried to hound him before he took charge for the first time because he said he wouldn't sing the national anthem.
His employers also occasionally gave him an impossible task: he had to take center stage at press conferences where he was asked about his own ambitions, even though he knew that Thomas Tuchel had been given the manager's job.
Carsley is a nice guy. A loyal employee. A humble guy. And he is an excellent coach. But he was not suitable for the top job at the moment because his FA bosses had decided they wanted someone with a track record of claiming major titles at senior level. A proven winner. Someone who can take this England men's side to the promised land, where a major international trophy awaits.
Carsley said during his tenure his mission was to, firstly, ensure that England were promoted back to the top level of Nations League football, and secondly, to increase the talent pool for Tuchel to choose from by introducing more youngsters into the to bleed the international scene.
He succeeded in achieving both objectives, the second emphatically. Tino Livramento earned his senior debut against Ireland, with Taylor Harwood-Bellis following suit from the bench, becoming the 31st and 32nd players used by Carsley across the six autumn Nations League games. No other European country has fielded so many players.
However, it is a bit naive to think that Tuchel will be influenced in any way by the players Carsley has given game time to. Tuchel is very much his own man, with specific ideas and ways of playing.
Some think he is wedded to the idea of three centre-backs, as he used for most of his time at Chelsea, but in a tactical sense he is actually more pragmatic and creative than that. At Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich he often used a back four, with different formations for that defense.
One suspects that many of the players Tuchel favors are among the 10 players who withdrew from this squad due to injury (plus Kobbie Mainoo, John Stones and Luke Shaw, who were already ruled out before the squad was announced).
Tuchel's mission from the FA is very simple: win the World Cup in 2026. His contract only runs until the end of that tournament.
So – in direct contradiction to Carsley, who now returns to lead England's top prospects – Tuchel has no real motivation or mission to develop England's young players. Why would he do that when he might run away from England in eighteen months?
Tuchel will focus on players who are ready, who are already world-class or can reach that status very quickly. One of the quirks of England's automatic promotion to the elite level of the Nations League is that Tuchel will not actually take charge of a competitive international until September, nine months into his 18-month contract.
That's because, if England are placed in a four-team group at the World Cup draw in December, they will now play friendlies in the March internationals, with their qualifying campaign not starting until next autumn.
That means Tuchel will have less than nine months of competitive matches to prepare England for a World Cup spot in the US, Canada and Mexico. He will have very little time to experiment with young players and new caps, trying out new roles for anyone he thinks can adapt.
And don't forget that this is uncharted territory for Tuchel, who is an international coach for the first time. He is used to working with players from Europe's elite clubs on a daily basis; he is not used to the staccato nature of international management.
This latest international break saw the England squad join St George's Park on Monday and six days later they were on their way home again. Two matches in six days, a total of three full training sessions during the international break. Impossibly little time for Tuchel to get to know new players and get them to believe his philosophy. Even less time to give youth a chance.
It may seem like a harsh thing to say, but it's unrealistic to think that the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White, Angel Gomes or even Jack Grealish will be considered as England's No. 10 once Tuchel Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden are back in has itself. availability.
Will Harwood-Bellis or Jarrad Branthwaite get a place in the senior team if Marc Guehi, Stones, Harry Maguire, Levi Colwill and Ezri Konsa are all fit and available? Same goes for Noni Madueke if Bukayo Saka is back? You get my point.
Harry Kane's strong response aimed at the England players who he felt were not involved enough in the English cause is also telling. Kane will certainly be Tuchel's lieutenant on the pitch and his enforcer in the dressing room. The two became very close and very similar in their philosophy during their year together in Munich.
It was an interesting insight that Kane gave when he told the media that Tuchel would be friendly and welcoming to the squad as a whole, but also that he would 'not shy away from confrontation'.
Tuchel is not a man who is intimidated by big names and big reputations. He has done business with Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala, among many more superstars.
He won't be deterred from dropping big-name players from his England squad or starting the squad if he doesn't think they fit in. public outcry if he were to leave them out.
All of which means that the squad Carsley has built over the past three months is likely to look very different to the one Tuchel plans to put together once he takes charge on January 1.
The players who Kane suggested 'took advantage' of a niggle at a busy time of the season and turned away from the England squad will be back in the spring desperate to impress the new manager. While Carsley was metaphorically busy after ten injury admissions, Kane – like all of us – suspects that there will be far fewer injury admissions come March, when Tuchel is in charge.
Significantly, he has not called Carsley or Kane at any point since signing his FA contract last month to give them an idea or their opinion. Tuchel is determined, clear-minded and confident.
Carsley said after the win over Ireland that he will prepare a dossier for Tuchel to consume and sit down with his successor to offer some insight into the playing squad the new man may value. Does Tuchel want or need that transfer? We can't tell. But we do know that he will prepare his own thoughts and plans.
The brave new world that is England in 2025 will be designed in Germany, and the Tuchel era and its high-profile staff could look very different from the cast of characters we've been impressed by during Carsley's time in charge .
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