Kevin Palmer: Lee Carsley knows England job is his only viable entry to top level management

That statement makes no sense until you drill under the surface and appreciate where the international game now fits into football’s ecosystem.

The World Cup remains the ultimate showcase for the game, with the quadrennial festival of national teams providing a sporting marathon that captures global attention.

The European Championship finals, Copa America and African Cup of Nations also grip their regions, yet international football has slowly drifted into a slot where it has become the filler around the juggernaut that is club football.

So much so that if a survey was conducted among football fans and they were offered the option to end international football outside of major tournaments, it’s safe to assume most would tick the ‘yes’ box.

For now, we are stuck with unwelcome breaks in the domestic season that allow us to squeeze in mismatches that are so tedious, they border on bringing the game into disrepute.

Did anyone tune in to watch Albania’s 1-0 defeat at home to Georgia on Tuesday evening?

And who was on the edge of their seat as Andorra lost at home to Malta in the Nations League?

You could have enjoyed the thrills of Kosovo’s 4-0 win over Cyprus or Luxembourg’s 1-0 loss against Belarus, but we would all have preferred to be watching the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga.

The harsh reality is that a majority of football fans around Europe offer a collective sigh when the mention of an international break comes onto the radar – and they are not alone in that assessment.

Club managers loath the cessation in domestic league hostilities just three weeks into the season. The prospect of their star players coming back battered and bruised from all corners of the world is a bizarre custom that is only accepted in football.

This must be the only multi-billion-euro business that allows an outside employer to take an employee, use them as they see fit for 10 days and send them back in a condition that may mean they can’t work for a few months.

This is the outdated model international football relies on and it is one of many reasons why the game’s elite managers are shying away from national team jobs.

A glance at the list of managers working for Europe’s top nations right now tells a story of the level of coaching talent that is being hired to fill what were once prestigious roles.

Luis de la Fuente led Spain to Euro 2024 success this summer after an unsuccessful career in club coaching ended with him overseeing the nation’s underage teams before he landed the top job.

Belgium have hired the unheralded 38-year-old Italian Domenico Tedesco to be their new head coach, while Roberto Martinez landed the Portugal role despite his failures with Everton and the Belgian national team.

New Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson would not have been on a shortlist of candidates for a job in England’s second-tier Championship and the same story applied to Gareth Southgate before he landed the England job back in 2016.

Now Carsley is viewed as the strong favourite to be the next England manager, with his victory as England under 21 coach in last year’s European Championships seemingly enough to get him in the mix for the job.

Former Chelsea boss Graham Potter is a contender to be Southgate’s successor simply because he is out of work, but he would jump at the chance to move back into a Premier League job before taking on the poisoned chalice that is the England role.

And would Eddie Howe walk away from Newcastle and take a pay cut to become England manager? It seems unlikely.

As the FAI discovered in their shambolic search for Stephen Kenny’s replacement, finding credible candidates eager to work in international football is a tough task.

These jobs have become the fall-back position for managers who have failed at club level.

Carsley doesn’t even fit into that category as he has never managed at club level in a permanent role. And while he has all the coaching badges required to take on a top job, no club has taken the plunge and lured him away from his position as England under 21 boss.

The quietly spoken former Ireland midfielder would have had every right to declare he wanted nothing to do with the England job after he was caught up in a national debate over his refusal to sing ‘God Save The King’ ahead of last weekend’s Nations League game against Ireland in Dublin.

Yet after watching Harry Kane fire England to a 2-0 win against Finland on Tuesday night, Carsley declared he was still keen to be named as Southgate’s permanent replacement, despite the scrutiny that comes with the job.

The Ireland manager does not live with the kind of pressure applied to his counterpart in the England role. Anyone daring to wear the Three Lions on their shirt is expected to win and do so in style, even though they have not won anything of note in almost 60 years.

Some may say Carsley would be mad to throw himself into a line of fire that will see the media hound his family and friends when it all goes wrong.

But he knows the chances of him getting a top-level job anywhere else are virtually non-existent.

Carsley’s only realistic opportunity to work with elite players is not in the Premier League or even the Championship. His best chance may come by landing an England job the top managers would not take.

It’s a damning indictment of what international football has become.