ENGLAND risk squandering another golden generation if they choose the wrong successor to boss Gareth Southgate.
And former FA technical director Les Reed says the Three Lions should not be afraid to appoint Under-21 boss Lee Carsley ahead of a “celebrity, hobby manager”.
Southgate’s contract runs until the end of next year and it would be a surprise if he were still in charge for the 2026 World Cup — or Euro 2028 on home soil. Reed said: “We have all these exciting players, including a whole cohort who have won championships at age-group levels.
“This is the four years when those players should develop into a trophy-winning side.”
The likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard could not win silverware under Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.
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Reed, 70, added: “We had a group capable of winning the World Cup but we did not capitalise on that talent.
“We went the celebrity, hobby manager route.
“Don’t get me wrong — if Pep Guardiola wants the job and is passionate about it, we know he has the capability to get the best out of players.
“But it’s not a hobby job. It’s not, ‘I’ve won everything, I’ll have a go at international football’. We’ve seen that before.”
Carsley, 49, guided England Under-21s to their first European title for 19 years in the summer.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper, 43, led a team featuring Phil Foden to Under-17 World Cup glory in 2017. Reed said: “Gareth transitioned a lot of U21 players into the set-up because he knew them.
“If we don’t consider Lee Carsley, we shouldn’t have considered Gareth Southgate.”
When Reed returned to the FA in 2019 for a second stint as technical director, an aim was “to develop a school of Gareth Southgates”.
Southgate, 53, who joined the FA in 2011, led the Under-21s to triumph in the Toulon Tournament but only got the senior job later in 2016 after Sam Allardyce left for non-football reasons.
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Reed said: “Research showed most World Cup winners had coaches with experience of age-group international football.”
Having left his role with the FA at the end of 2020, Reed now runs his own consultancy — with Wrexham’s Hollywood owners among his clients.
But he believes Carsley and Cooper are currently the strongest candidates to replace Southgate.
He said: “The technical thinking would be, ‘That makes sense’.
“But when it’s time to appoint a new England manager, people at FA board level or senior exec level come out of the woodwork and they all have an idea or a plan. That increases the fervour for a Galactico appointment.”
