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In Lee Carsley’s first act as interim England manager, which was an introductory press conference, he said “I understand how an international window works”. He certainly does now.
If there is one reason there should be caution about Carsley getting the job other than results and performances, it certainly isn’t the singing of the national anthem. That should be irrelevant, except it does at least echo this bigger factor.
It is the need to realise that, whether a coach likes it or not, the England manager job is about so much more than football. It is a vessel for all of the country’s political influences to pour their own interests into, given it is still the most visible position in the national game. The role is supposed to stand for something greater, a representation of England, even if the people concerned with this are never going to actually agree what that England is supposed to be.
That’s why it was long known as the “second most important job in the country” after the prime minister, and why it was termed the impossible job. It is partly what pushed Gareth Southgate out, and why he so often considered resigning long before he did. Although Carsley’s predecessor was willing to admirably talk about certain social issues, especially those related to his players, it saw him inadvertently cast as a spokesman for the soul of English football.
Southgate didn’t pursue that and certainly didn’t pursue the hostility it started to create. He even began to bristle against that status, actively resisting the offer to answer more politicised questions in the last few years of his tenure.
Who could blame him? By that point, a considerable rump of England fans hated Southgate for his perceived political views. That theme even got to the point where Matt Le Tissier referred to “the woke Mr Southgate” on Nigel Farage’s ‘Talking Pints’ TV show, the current MP for Clacton-on-Sea whooping at that like a town crier.
Carsley has now been cast into that kind of role before a ball is even kicked.
If Southgate got booed for his players taking the knee, Carsley has already been pilloried for saying he doesn’t sing the anthem.
The great irony of all that - which is sadly almost an indication of Carsley not realising what he was walking into - is that he absolutely didn’t make this as a political point or anything of the sort. He tried to stick to football in the most fundamental terms possible. The new England manager essentially explained he is too focused on the job at hand to concern himself with the pageantry around the game.
“This is something that I always struggled with when I was playing for Ireland,” Carsley said. “The gap between your warm-up, your coming on to the pitch and the delay with the anthems. So it’s something that I have never done. I was always really focused on the game and my first actions of the game. I really found that in that period I was wary about my mind wandering off. I was really focused on the football and I have taken that in to coaching. We had the national anthem with the under-21s also and I am in a zone at that point. I am thinking about how the opposition are gonna set up and our first actions within the game. I fully respect both anthems and understand how much they mean to both countries. It’s something I am really respectful of.”
Except, his very answer has now been cast in some quarters as the most disrespectful stance possible. It was already the heated subject of radio phone-ins by Saturday morning.
The timing is all the more unfortunate given this comes before a game against Ireland, where the build-up has been so politically charged regarding issues of identity. Carsley had been asked about whether he’ll talk to former Irish internationals Declan Rice and Jack Grealish about potentially getting booed. That framing is also perhaps why a commotion like this was inevitable.
Now, Carsley’s own Irish background is repeatedly being brought up in connection to the anthem story. That despite the fact he literally says he didn’t sing the Irish anthem ahead of any of his 40 caps either.
This is where there might be a bigger point to a story that feels so small, too. When asked about that Irish background this week, Carsley tried to keep it fairly level, and again stick to the football. It was like his stance is that anything external just doesn’t matter to the playing of the game. That’s for others to discuss. This is a man, after all, who once went to watch the Royal Ballet company to pick up training techniques.
That’s maybe what it should be. Except, another discussion in that same press conference was over how the England shirt had started to feel “heavy” again. You couldn’t have a better illustration as this. Southgate was fully aware of the effect all of the noise around England could have, and that is actually why he did as well as he did. He knew how to navigate this.
It might be something people only now start to appreciate. Southgate never answered a question without assessing what kind of angles might follow. The only criticism you could really have of Carsley here is that there was a naivety to not realising this is what the job actually entails. It shouldn’t be like that, of course, but it is. Carsley singing or not singing anthems should obviously be his own choice, left uncommented on, especially since it doesn’t affect the football. You can’t counter-press an anthem.
It’s all the more unfortunate since Carsley is here because is such a bright coach. He’s also a good citizen, in doing so much community and charity work. That’s what should matter here.
Except, controversies like this do affect the atmosphere around the job, which in turn influences the pitch due to that “noise”.
This week, Carsley inadvertently made his first error. He made the mistake of thinking the job is purely about football.
