On the eve of the European Championship, a former player close to the England camp repeatedly told us: ‘Square pegs, round holes. It won’t work.’
We were writing about the fatuity of Gareth Southgate and his intended Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment and, by extension, Phil Foden as a left-winger. Our man was right, it did not work.
Yes, England made the final, but in Berlin the best team won and the best players lost. The market value of England’s starting XI would have dwarfed that of Spain.
Lee Carsley, it seems, will not be compromised by the same temptation as his predecessor.