I was Roy Keane’s team-mate at Ireland, I didn’t even notice when he quit the World Cup – now I want to win with England
BACK in 2002, Lee Carsley was so in his own world as a player at a major tournament he barely even noticed when Roy Keane stormed out of Ireland’s World Cup training camp in Saipan.
Now he has to be on top of every single detail as he presides over his first European Championship as England Under-21 manager.
Carsley and Jason McAteer were the two players put up to face the world’s media in the wake of Keane’s exit following his infamous tirade at then Irish boss Mick McCarthy.
Manchester United captain Keane’s departure shook football to its core ahead of the South Korea and Japan World Cup — and yet Carsley seemed blissfully unaware.
The 49-year-old reflected: “As a player, you’re so selfish. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if Roy was happy or sad.
"A lot of the lads seem to have different recollections of how dramatic it was, depending on who they’re talking to! It’s just something that happened and that was it.
“The press conference the next day it was me and Jason in front of the world’s press, with no prep. Nobody got prepped. Just crack on.
“It was obviously a big deal. But I probably saw it as another midfielder gone, I’ve probably got a better chance of playing!”
It could not be more different now for Carsley, who regularly wakes up at 5am and messages his assistants Ashley Cole, Joleon Lescott and Tim Dittmer with training plans.
He has admitted to being obsessed with his job and every facet to it, particularly during the long stretches between international camps.
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Now it is time for the real work to begin, though, as England kick off their Under-21 Euros in Georgia against Czech Republic on Thursday.
His squad is stacked full of multi-million-pound stars such as Anthony Gordon and Morgan Gibbs-White.
Yet Carsley knows a brimful of talent is not enough, with England crashing out in the group stage at five of the last six tournaments.
What should give England fans optimism, though, apart from Carsley’s style of play and his squad quality, is the manager feels ready for the task.
Unlike some ex-players who believe they can go straight to the top in management, Carsley has been more patient and methodical.
He has spent much of his time in developing young players, including at Coventry, Brentford, Birmingham and Manchester City, which was a key factor in his appointment as Aidy Boothroyd’s Under-21s successor in 2021.
The Brummie has wanted to hone his craft, having been taught an early lesson during his caretaker spell at the Ricoh Arena in 2012.
Carsley explained: “There was one light-bulb moment against Swindon.
“We’d beaten Bury and I’m thinking, ‘Played one, won one. I’m definitely the next big thing here!’
“Swindon were 4-4-2 but a lopsided diamond. The outside of the diamond kept going wide. From the dugout, you can’t see — you haven’t got the depth and width perception.
“I couldn’t work out what system they were playing. We couldn’t get near them.
“We went 1-0 up — don’t ask me how — and as we’re going in for half-time I can hear the lads screaming at each other.
“I’m thinking, ‘My God, I can’t work it out’. I got away with it but I knew myself that I was miles off it.
“It would only have taken one of them to say, ‘Well, what are they doing?’ and I’d have been snookered. I couldn’t have gone up to the tactics board and showed them.
“I had an awareness that if I am not careful, I’ll get elevated beyond my capability and the game will spit me out.”
Carsley feels much more tactically astute now and has Lescott watch the first 25 minutes of games from up in the stands to get a different perspective.
Ex-Everton man Carlsey has been reluctant in the past to go for first-team jobs in club posts, not wanting to be one of the many “bluffers” in football applying for roles beyond their experience.
That may have changed now and it will be fascinating to see what he does after this tournament, in the wake of speculation he could move on.
Carsley added: “I’m nearly 50 now. Energy-wise — and I’m not saying the clock’s ticking — but if I don’t have a go at it then the boat is going to pass.
“But I’m not chasing. I’m so focused on the summer.”
Carsley has always prioritised getting players through to the seniors over results for the Under-21s, just as his predecessor Boothroyd did.
Just last Thursday, his starting centre-back Levi Colwill did not come out to Batumi with the rest of the Under-21s squad but went with Gareth Southgate’s men to Malta.
Yet Carsley knows just as well as anyone that failure out here will be met with heavy criticism.
Lee: My peep at Pep made me right
PEP GUARDIOLA is a major reason why Lee Carsley’s teams do not play how he did.
England Under-21s chief Carsley was known for being a disciplined defensive midfielder as a player, who fit well in pragmatic sides such as his Everton one of the noughties.
But his free-flowing style as a manager is almost the polar opposite - largely thanks to Pep.
Carsley initially took the same approach to coaching as he did as a player when he began his coaching career in 2011 with Coventry.
But then a trip to watch Guardiola’s Barcelona train transformed his thinking.
Carsley, 49, explained: “When I started coaching, I coached the way I played. We were quite mid-block, quite passive in our pressing, quite direct, fast attacks.
“Then I had almost that lightbulb moment of, ‘No, we need to be on the ball more, we need to attack more’.
“A bit of that would have come from going on a study visit to Barcelona and going and watching Pep.
“Just seeing how training was set up, the amount of time that was spent having possession of the ball but for the purpose of getting a finish away.
“Everything was based around scoring a goal at the end, running forward and creating space.
“They had an open session and I was in a group of 50-60 people - the general public, though, not coaches. It did (have a profound effect on me).”
Carsley went on to coach Manchester City’s Under-18s side during Guardiola’s first campaign at the Etihad.
Among his crop were the likes of Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho and Brahim Diaz, with the likes of Tommy Doyle and Taylor Harwood-Bellis - both of whom are in his Under-21 Euros squad - coming up a few years younger.
Guardiola and Carsley rarely spoke but the Spanish genius did every so often come over and watch Under-18s training as it was near the first-team on the Etihad campus.
Carsley was blown away by watching the simplicity of Guardiola’s first-team sessions that exploded the myth that his side were doing anything ultra-complicated that other teams could not live with.
Carsley said: “It was the equivalent of the Wizard of Oz, going and looking behind the curtain right at the end and thinking, ‘My God’.
“Being lucky to watch some of the senior sessions and seeing how simple it was.
“You want to see something weird and wonderful. But it doesn’t exist. It’s so simple but so too the point. It’s nailing it every time.
“Then it’s the behaviours and values that go behind that like outworking your opponent, trying your best, don’t give up. All these kind of things. If you do all them, and you’re a really good player, you’ve got a really good chance.”
But even in that event, or if England go onto win it, Carsley is likely to remain the same balanced person.
A big reason for that is his role as a father of three, and in particular to second son Connor, who has Down’s Syndrome.
He was born just after Carsley moved to Blackburn for £4m in 1999 but the lifestyle and wealth that comes with being a Premier League player counted for little when it came to the care Connor needed.
Carsley, now a patron for Solihull Down’s Syndrome Support Group, said: “I could be playing in the Premier League on a Saturday to an NHS waiting room on a Monday to meet a speech therapist.
“I was quite sheltered (as a player) in terms of if you went to hospital, you went to a specialist. A car took you in, waited, you went straight in, back in the car and away.
“We went from that to no, this is the real world, if you want a speech therapist you have to get in the queue with everyone else.
“It made me a lot more aware of the bigger picture, the bigger world.
“It made me a lot more aware of how much support families need because money is obviously important but it didn’t help us.
“We needed support, we needed to be around people who were experiencing the same things we were, which isn’t always there or you’re not always aware that it is there.
“For Connor to walk, he didn’t just (clicks fingers) start walking, there were probably three or four years of physiotherapy that my wife did and some of the carers did to get to that point.
“That was pressure and responsibility. You couldn’t compare it, but I would feel a lot more under pressure in that regard than I would in this job.
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“But it’s totally different. I still massively care about what I’m doing here.”