England are going up! Winners & losers as Lee Carsley leads Three Lions to Nations League promotion & sets Thomas Tuchel era up for World Cup success

But it is for those reasons that Carsley is also the victim of this whole saga. If the FA were not planning on bringing in a permanent boss until January and he was always going to get these three camps in charge, could they have not waited until the end of 2024 to come to a decision? What was the need of rushing an appointment in October if the successful candidate wasn’t going to start immediately? Did they fear Manchester United would swoop in to steal their top target even though the Old Trafford hierarchy spurned Tuchel back in the summer?

Unless England go all the way at the 2026 World Cup, these are the questions that will hang over the FA and Tuchel’s premiership. This decision made what seemed a proactive and savvy move look rather amateurish, the shine coming off a statement signing in the name of diplomacy.

Then there’s the continued uncertainty over the FA’s paradoxical and conflicting commitment to promoting English coaching. Sure, Carsley has strengthened his credentials for future vacancies, but if the job were still up for grabs, he would have had more time to build a compelling case for the gig. It appears the FA’s minds were already made up, however, and their wishy-washy claim of interviewing at least 10 coaches prior to Tuchel signing the contract was widely disputed, bringing a needless scepticism on their business and thinking.

Carsley is the victim of that muddied process, and the FA are fortunate he is a man who has handled himself with integrity throughout his time in the Wembley dugout, who didn’t stir the pot any further and towed the party line as they pleaded. Perhaps a more careerist manager would have made other, louder noises from behind the Three Lions podium.

Carsley’s lasting impact coming away from the autumn internationals is how wide the England player pool now is and the empowerment young talent should feel about their future chances of featuring for the Three Lions. His experience and winning record as Under-21s boss gave him the credit in the bank needed to get away with some audacious squad selections, with even the most eyebrow-raising picks paying dividends.

From the off, Carsley was determined to showcase the overlooked youth he had nurtured, from Nottingham Forest playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White to out-of-contract Lille midfielder Angel Gomes, from new Liverpool star Curtis Jones to genuine left-back option Lewis Hall. The door has been left ajar for top-flight youngsters to make the jump from the U21s to the senior team.

Southgate came under fire for, rightly or wrongly, sticking to a rigid core and not acting quickly enough to blood emerging players into his setup. Should Tuchel decide a squad shake-up is needed, there is clearly enough quality about the country for him to enact.

This is really a story in two parts. There aren’t any concerns over Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer’s respective performances when donning the white of England, more so how the two can co-exist.

It was a conundrum that had hoped to have been solved during this Nations League campaign. Alas, a mixture of injury and fitness concerns, plus Carsley’s aforementioned Greece experiment which saw Palmer play as a deep-lying midfielder for whatever reason, means that this is still an issue on Tuchel’s in-tray.

That’s a luxury problem to have, but Phil Foden’s waning influence for the Three Lions is of real bother. Southgate never seemed to know how to get the best out of him, and nor did Carsley. During his disappointing Euros, Foden was urged by pundits to force his way out of the slump himself, but these struggles have only followed him from international to club level with Manchester City, where he is only continuing to flounder and flop.

Foden’s Euros form saw calls for Anthony Gordon to start in his place and bring a runner into a frontline which largely favoured having the ball to feet. The Newcastle winger was one of several new-gen England attackers who excelled under Carsley’s tutelage and has credit in the bank moving forward, while Foden is now facing an uphill battle to be a key part of the team’s future plans.

The England old guard aren’t quite in the rear-view mirror just yet, though they could do with leaving Kyle Walker, maligned by off-field drama and the effects of Father Time, by the wayside regardless. Now 34, he is nowhere near the player he once was and his performances are massively declining.

In his pomp, Walker was unquestionably one of the world’s best defenders, but he couldn’t shake questions over what would happen if he wasn’t one of the quickest players in the game. With his pace no longer an advantage and thousands of miles on his body clock, we now have a belated answer – he is a liability who needs withdrawing for everyone’s good.

Carsley, ever the innovator across his six-game spell, did sniff out Walker’s growing deficiencies at right-back and utilised him in a central role for Sunday’s 5-0 thrashing of Ireland, though even there he looked off the pace and off the boil. The growing promise of Trent Alexander-Arnold as an actual defender (thank you, Arne Slot) and Tuchel’s pre-existing relationship with Reece James should spell the end of Walker’s England career, and that’s before you even get to the fact younger players like Tino Livramento are making their own case to start.

Managing England was always going to be a dream job for the Anglicised Tuchel regardless of the state he found the team in, but there’s no doubt he will have liked what he’s seen over the autumn. The Three Lions needed a confidence boost to rediscover themselves, and they got just that.

There are selection headaches to be contended with, but none more so than at any elite club. England have some of the sport’s best players and now one of the best coaches, who will feel confident about his chances of success in the hot-seat.

Tuchel will now walk into St George’s Park with fresh momentum again and without the added pressure of having to clear any metaphorical dark clouds lingering over the nation. It’s full steam ahead for the World Cup and global glory.