Replace Gareth Southgate, Lee Carsley As England's Temporary Manager

The England national team will be handled by interim manager Lee Carsley. (X/England)

JAKARTA - England appointed U-21 national team manager Lee Carsley to replace Gareth Southgate. However, Carsley's appointment was temporary when England played in the UEFA Nations League, September 2024.

England has not yet received a replacement for Southgate who resigned after bringing The Three Lions to the Euro 2024 final. A number of names have indeed been included as candidates for the England national team manager.

The FA also opened up opportunities for the national team to be handled again by foreign managers such as the era oftan Goran Eriksson (Sweden) and Fabio Capello (Italy). As a result, Thomas Tuchel (Germany, Juergen Klopp (Germany) and Mauricio Pochettino (Argentina) are said to be coaching Harry Kane et al.

But apart from these candidates, the FA has actually considered recruiting Pep Guardiola who is currently handling Manchester City. Only this Spanish man has indirectly rejected the offer by asking Man City to extend his contract which expires in 2025.

Apart from managers from outside England, a number of local managers are candidates. Among them are Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe and Graham Potter who are still unemployed after leaving Chelsea. Not only that, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard also visited as one of the England manager candidates.

Even the FA opens up opportunities for female managers to handle men's teams. Sarina Wiegmann, who successfully handled the women's England national team, was said to have replaced Southgate.

The Dutch manager brought England to win the women's 2022 European Cup. He also successfully led England to win the 2023 women's Finalissima against South American champions, Brazil.

Wiegmann's achievements are indeed very impressive. Previously, he also successfully handled the women's Dutch national team.

The FA is not in a hurry to find a new manager. However, the FA has prepared Carsley as interim manager because Britain will face Ireland in the Nations League event, September 7, 2024. And, three days later they meet Finland at Wembley.

"We already have to have a Nations League match in September. So we set a temporary manager as a solution," FA executive Mark Bullingham was quoted as saying by The Sun.

Carsley followed in the footsteps of Howard Wilkinson and Stuart Pearce who handled the junior national team and later became interim managers in the senior team.

But Carsley had the chance to outperform the two of them because they only once led the senior national team before being taken over by the manager appointed by the FA.

Carsley is actually a fairly experienced manager. This 50-year-old man has played at Everton and ended his career at Coventry City.

Only, he's actually an 'assing' manager because he comes from Ireland and has a cap of 40 before retiring in 2011.

At the coaching level, Carsley was once in the managerial ranks at Coventry City, Brentford, Man City, Birmingham City and then the England U-20 national team. He succeeded in bringing England U-21 to win Euro 2023.