Lee Carsley does not have his photograph on the wall at St George’s Park. The corridor at England’s base is lined with framed pictures of every senior England manager, from Walter Winterbottom through to Sam Allardyce, who was in charge for a single game. Two European Under-21 Championship titles and a six-match spell at the helm of the senior side after Gareth Southgate’s departure have not added the Young Lions boss to that collection. Carsley, though, is not troubled by the omission — he is busy plotting a treble.
England can take a significant step towards Euro 2027 by beating Kazakhstan at Molineux on Friday and Slovakia next week. Carsley’s side sit top of Group D, three points clear of Slovakia, and victory in both fixtures would book their place at the tournament.
The scale of what is being chased is considerable. England lifted successive European Under-21 titles in 1982 and 1984, then waited 39 years until Carsley’s team won in Georgia and Romania in 2023, beating Spain in the final. Last summer’s extra-time victory over Germany in Bratislava, sealed by Jonathan Rowe’s strike, delivered the title defence. Winning the competition three times in a row has been achieved only once before, by Italy in the 1990s — and never in its current guise as a 16-team tournament.
Carsley is aware both of the difficulty and of the lasting impact further success could bring. “The older you get, you want to leave a legacy, don’t you?” he said. “There would have been an easy move, after the first win, to go and do club management and go and accept a few of the offers. But I enjoy the job I’m doing and I enjoy that I’m part of a bigger quest to win a major tournament. I want to be part of the FA when we do that.”
The pressure of attempting something no England Under-21 side has managed is, he says, welcome. “I think we have to embrace that,” said the former Everton and Derby midfielder. “They come to play for the under-21s, you’re back-to-back champions. There’s a bullseye that goes with that. We have to be aware of that and go for it. The expectancy, we’ll just get through the group and then we’ll win the quarters, we’ll win the semis and then we’ll just win the final… it’s very difficult. My priority is definitely qualifying and then that’s something I’ll think about.”
England began their qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win in Kazakhstan last September, although they have not played since beating Moldova in March. The Young Lions host Slovakia in Stoke on 2 October before travelling to Cork to wrap up Group D against Ireland four days later. They have won six of their seven games, but needed an injury-time Rico Lewis penalty to rescue a 1-1 draw in Andorra in March.
There are recognisable names in the current squad, among them Tottenham’s Archie Gray and Dortmund’s Jobe Bellingham. It is notable how many of the recent England Under-21 winners have gone on to represent the senior side, particularly the 2023 group, which featured Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon. Noni Madueke, who featured in this year’s World Cup, could not even get into the starting XI.
Their recent triumphs were not without nervy moments. In Euro 2025 qualifying, England won Group F by a single point, needing two late James McAtee goals to beat Ukraine in their penultimate game and take the race for top spot to the final match. They then beat Azerbaijan 7-0 as Ukraine lost 1-0 to Serbia, overhauling their rivals to top the group.
Carsley is refusing to take anything for granted this time around. “We can’t just be arrogant and think, we’ll just turn up, we’ve got better players,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we constantly make these players aware we are a big scalp, this is a chance for them to make a big deal in their own country, so it’s important mentally and physically you’re ready to challenge. It’s very difficult to qualify. I’ve never known an easy qualification process, but sometimes you forget — when you’re on the pitch and you’ve got the trophy in your hands — the journey you’ve gone on to get there.”