Lee Carsley drops hint over his England future after bowing out from interim spell with thumping 5-0 victory against the Republic of Ireland

Lee Carsley seemingly revealed he is open to taking the permanent England job in the future after bowing out with a thumping victory against the Republic of Ireland.

Carsley steered the Three Lions to promotion back into the top tier of the Nations League after winning five of his six matches in charge.

A second-half scoring blitz secured a comfortable 5-0 win at Wembley on Sunday night, allowing the interim head coach to hand over to Thomas Tuchel on a high.

Tuchel will officially begin his duties at the start of next year while Carsley will return to his previous role at the helm of the Under-21s.

But, speaking after guiding his side to another eye-catching result against the Irish, Carsley dropped a hint that he would relish leading the senior team again.

‘It has given the staff and myself the confidence that we can do the job,’ he told ITV. ‘That was the big thing, you always doubt yourself whether you could do it or not.

Carsley bowed out on a high after the Three Lions beat the Republic of Ireland at Wembley

Four players scored their first goals for their country in the thumping Nations League win

‘We often speak about there’s a lot of England managers sat in the house picking the team and picking the squad and to have the responsibility to do that and the trust from my bosses has been a massive boost of confidence.’

Tuchel has signed an 18-month contract with the Three Lions, taking him through the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, raising the possibility that Carsley could again be in contention to step in after the tournament.

But Carsley is instead firmly focused on providing a thorough handover to Tuchel and his coaching staff. He said: ‘We will debrief with all of the staff, and then we will do a debrief on the football to the coaching staff on the three camps.

‘Then the plan will be, I will feed it back into Thomas and John McDermott.’

Carsley, 50, added: ‘I am not sure I will give him [Tuchel] a lot of advice.

‘He is in a better position than I am in terms of the experience he has had [in management] and the staff he has. It will probably be more the players, the personalities and the stuff you won’t see on the TV.’

Shortly after the final whistle at Wembley, the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, paid tribute to Carsley’s work during his brief interim spell.

Bullingham said: ‘I would like to thank Lee Carsley and his coaching team for their hard work and results in the last six games.

Thomas Tuchel will officially take charge in January and has signed an 18-month contract

Carsley will prepare a thorough debrief for Tuchel but admitted he had no specific advice

‘Lee has achieved the main objective from the six fixtures this autumn: securing promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League.

‘He has selected some exciting new players and will be providing Thomas Tuchel and Anthony Barry with a very detailed handover as they start work on our qualifying campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

‘The players have really enjoyed working with Lee and his team – they have made a real impact in their interim roles.

‘Lee will now return to the Under-21s and will continue to play a vital role supporting the seniors by developing England’s best young players.

‘His leadership and coaching gives us the best possible chance of back-to-back U21 EURO wins next summer, and he will continue to play a big part in elite football development across the FA.’