England are on the hunt for a new permanent head coach after the departure of longtime boss Gareth Southgate following defeat in the Euro 2024 final to Spain.
Yet with UEFA Nations League matches against Republic of Ireland and Finland to come in early September, the setup needs someone in charge even as the search for a permanent leader continues.
Thus, the England national team has designated U-21 head coach Lee Carsley to serve as interim manager until a permanent boss can be chosen.
As a relative unknown amongst the England fanbase, The Sporting News brings you through the 50-year-old's credentials from his playing days with Everton to his coaching career, largely at the developmental levels — which is exactly where he wants to be.
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Who is England interim manager Lee Carsley?
Lee Carsley has been with the England national team setup for the last four years, hired in 2020 as U-20 boss before being promoted to the U-21 side a year later, a position he's held since.
Carsley was born in Birmingham but represented the Republic of Ireland at both the youth and senior levels as his grandmother was from Cork. He earned 40 international caps before retiring in 2011. Carsley made 166 appearances for Everton as a midfielder during his career, also spending time with Derby County, Blackburn, Coventry City, and Birmingham.
After his playing days came to an end, Carsley bounced around at the beginning of his coaching career, spending short spells with Coventry City, Sheffield United, the England youth national team, and Manchester City's academy over the first four years of his coaching days. He oversaw two short stints as Coventry City caretaker manager, once in 2012 and again a year later.
Carsley's first senior managerial job came with then-Championship side Brentford in 2015, replacing Jon de Souza on a longer-term interim basis. He won Championship Manager of the Month in October, but was replaced on a permanent basis by incoming manager Dean Smith, staying until December to help with integration before departing the club.
He then served as caretaker manager of Birmingham City in the wake of Harry Redknapp's firing in 2017, before joining the England national team's developmental squads in 2020 after two years without a coaching position. First taking charge of the U-20 side for a year, Carsley has been with the U-21 team since mid-2021, leading the side to the Euro U-21 title in 2023 with a 1-0 victory over Spain in the final, their first continental title at that level since 1984.
Lee Carsley likely not a candidate for England permanent job
It doesn't seem like Lee Carsley will be a candidate for the permanent England managerial job, at least if his previous comments are still true to this day.
"I didn't ask to be a football manager," Carsley said after his debut as interim manager of Brentford in 2015. "I love being a coach and love coaching. I'm still involved with England Under-19s.
"I see the development side of it as a big strength of mine. In terms of when I retired, my first thought wasn't I want to be a manager. I want to coach under-21, under-18 teams – that's where my strength is. At the last two clubs I've ended up caretaker manager but there's probably 90 other managers who are caretaker managers."
While Carsley has plenty of experience as an interim manager, he sounded like a man who loves to develop young talent and has no interest in a senior-level position. However, those comments were nearly a decade ago, and his ambitions could certainly have changed since then.
Carsley does have experience coaching a number of the current England players at the youth level, including leading the likes of Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho to the FA Youth Cup final in 2017 with Manchester City.