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In the wake of an end-of-season senior international break during which England could scarcely have looked more underwhelming, a penny for the current thoughts of those Football Association blazers who decided to appoint Thomas Tuchel as Sir(!) Gareth Southgate’s replacement following Lee Carsley’s six-month interim spell in charge. While it’s probably safe to say a chimp with a tactics board could navigate England’s passage through the qualifiers to next summer’s World Cup finals, Tuchel has been hired at great expense on a short-term contract with the sole target of lifting the trophy next summer. When the inevitable handwringing starts (should he fail to do so), folk will want to know to know exactly why a “forrin” – and a German one at that – with a penchant for being difficult and precisely no international management experience got the job ahead of an oven-ready homegrown replacement who seems seriously clued-in when it comes to excelling at summer kickabouts.

Whether or not the criticism will be justified remains to be seen but what we can probably all agree on is that when it comes to securing England’s progress through under-21 tournaments, Lee Carsley seems to have the Midas touch. Having masterminded England’s victory at the last Euros, he is now on the verge of helping an almost entirely new set of players retain the title won by their country two years ago in Georgia. Having already seen off tournament favourites Spain in the quarter-finals, England booked their place in the final with a 2-1 semi-final victory over the Netherlands in Bratislava. Harvey Elliott – one of just two 2023 winners in the 2025 squad – scored both goals, either side of an opportunistic Noah Ohio strike from 40-yards that caught out England’s goalkeeper at his near post. Mercifully, it was the only time of the evening James Beadle was not about. “We’ve got so much quality,” trilled Carsley, who is looking to emulate Dave $exton by managing England to back-to-back Euros success. “But, more importantly, we’ve got a squad that believes that they can win. There’s more belief, which is important if we’re going to go that one step more, which is generally the hardest step now – getting over the line.”