Troy Deeney: Lee Carsley is the go-to coaching guru for aspiring managers

WHEN I was doing my coaching badges as a player at Watford and Birmingham, I wanted to get the best possible advice.

I asked friends and contacts up and down the country who I should speak to — and almost everyone pointed me in the direction of Lee Carsley.

Given that Lee hadn’t been the full-time manager of any senior team, I didn’t really expect that but those people were right. He is a special coach and a special man.

Two of those who gave me the most glowing references about Lee were Ashley Cole and Joleon Lescott, who are both now assisting him in his role as England’s interim manager.

I spoke to Lee at length about how to put on coaching sessions, about how everything you do as a coach all week long should ultimately be directed towards the match on a Saturday afternoon.

Lee is thorough, generous and decent. He gave me his number and insisted I called him if I ever needed anything.

We’re from the same neck of the woods and played for the same Sunday league club, Catholic Community Centre, at different times.

And it feels as if Birmingham is the epicentre of English football right now with Lee in charge of the national team, Jude Bellingham the star player and Jack Grealish looking the part as a roaming No 10 in the victories over Ireland and Finland.

When I was a Birmingham City player, Lee’s son Callum worked in the recruitment department and his other son, Connor — a great lad, who has Down’s syndrome — was also a frequent visitor to the training ground.

If anyone is wondering whether Lee has the steeliness to do the England job, I think that dealing with the issues surrounding Connor’s condition will certainly have given him an edge and a resilience.

It cannot fail to have given him a deeper understanding of real life than many in professional football possess.

I can’t now envisage a scenario in which Lee won’t get the England job full-time. The victories over Ireland and Finland were jobs well done.

England played particularly well in the first half in Dublin, players were operating with freedom, not least Grealish and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

I don’t want to be too negative about Gareth Southgate as he made huge progress as England boss, reaching two Euros finals, but the football was more attacking and Lee has so far shown greater common sense, with players operating in their natural positions.

English football can be arrogant. We think we must have a proven, world-class, trophy-winning manager in charge of the national team — but we’ve had that with Fabio Capello and the late Sven-Goran Eriksson, without winning anything.

It’s not all about having a glittering CV, it’s about knowing the players and understanding the job.

Lee was a successful boss of the England Under-21s, winning the European Championship last year, so he knows the emerging talent.

And he is already bringing it through with the likes of Angel Gomes, Noni Madueke and Morgan Gibbs-White getting their full international debuts.

The FA know him and trust him but I don’t agree with the idea I keep hearing that Lee is “just an FA man”.

He is anything but “just an FA man”. He is his own man who knows his own mind and he will never try to be anything he is not.

Lee was offered the Republic of Ireland job last year and many people in his position would have jumped at the chance.

But he had the courage of his convictions to stay put and wait for this opportunity.

There will be no fake airs and graces with Lee. He is a hands-on coach, first and foremost.

You will have seen him on the pitch setting out cones in the warm-ups of his first two matches in charge of England — and the players will like that.

There have been many coaches who are extremely highly rated and successful as a No 2 but far less adept at being the main man. In England terms, Steve McClaren fits into that category.

But I believe Lee does have the man- management ability, as well as the tactical expertise, to be the No 1 on a permanent basis.

These six Nations League matches, which feature Greece as well as the Irish and the Finns, will not tell us how Lee will fare managing England against elite opposition.

That is the final step for England, having reached the latter stages of four consecutive tournaments under Gareth.

There will be huge issues to deal with going forward — not least that England have a whole host of No 10s but no obvious successor to Harry Kane as our No 9.

But I don’t think the FA will go scouring the globe for a more illustrious name to be Southgate’s full-time successor when the best man for the job is probably right beneath their noses.