From an England supporter’s perspective, last Sunday’s Euro 24 final certainly lived down to expectations.

Having stumbled their way through the easy side of the draw, requiring last-gasp goals and poor VAR decisions to carry them to Berlin, it would probably have been an injustice if the Three Lions had defeated a vibrant and exciting Spanish team.

Luckily for football, with Gareth Southgate in charge, there was little chance of that happening, and the tournament was allowed to come to a logical conclusion with the sport’s integrity intact and Spain worthy winners.

Southgate, as expected, did the decent thing in the wake of his latest failure and fell on his sword, showing the same unquestionable levels of dignity in departure as he had during his entire eight-year reign.

That’s the thing about Southgate – he is almost impossible not to like. Decent, honest, polite, thoughtful, kind, caring. One of the nicest men to ever hold English football’s highest office.

But as a coach, he was floundering from the moment he stepped through the door. Poor tactics, imbalanced squads, illogical favouritism, a preference for defence when the team screamed attack, and the inability to make big calls and substitutions when they were needed.

Heck, he essentially made England play seven matches in Germany with just 10 men because he either couldn’t see, or was too scared to act upon, the fact that his captain was not there mentally or physically.

A lot of people point out that he guided England to two finals, one semi-final and one quarter-final during his time, and claim this is success. Maybe it is, especially when compared to his predecessors.

But you could equally argue that it is just glorified failure. Would a better manager have turned one or two of those promising runs into actual trophies? Impossible to know, but interesting to ponder.

Anyway, Southgate’s gone and leaves the role with his head held high. He did his best, and from an ambassadorial perspective, if not a football one, he didn’t miss a beat.

Now, of course, speculation has swiftly moved to his successor.

It would create highly unsavoury optics if the FA were to now turn around and appoint a foreign manager

Obviously, the FA will have plans in place to deal with a day they knew would come eventually. But that won’t make it any easier filling a role that is unique in terms of responsibility, expectation and pressure.

Many have already drawn up their own shortlists, which include the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino and Jürgen Klopp. And I can see arguments in favour of all three.

All of them have experience of the English game and have either worked with or competed against many of the current team. All like to play attacking, fluid football, which fits into the current squad demographics. All have substantial experience working with big teams and world-class players. And, crucially, all three men are currently unemployed and, with the exception of Klopp, would probably be more than happy to take the job tomorrow morning.

Although my preference is still to have an English manager managing England, I wouldn’t be dismayed if any of those guys were to take up residence in Southgate’s office. After tearing down the posters proclaiming the importance of having 11 men behind the ball, and getting rid of all the self-help books on how to be more decisive, they could get to work on moulding a great collection of individual players into a cohesive team.

But there’s a problem. The FA.

Over the past decade, they have rightly made it their mission to promote English football, English players and English coaches. They have spent hundreds of millions building St George’s Park and pushing it as a centre of excellence aimed at improving everything about the English game.

It would create highly unsavoury optics if they were to now turn around and appoint a foreign manager. It would be tantamount to admitting one of the key elements of their primary mission has been a complete failure. Which it essentially has.

So rather than admit they haven’t achieved their goals, I expect the FA to pretend everything is going swimmingly with their plans and English coaches are better than ever. And the only way they can do that is appoint an Englishman.

And that makes the shortlist a tad underwhelming.

Eddie Howe is the most obvious candidate and the current favourite. He has done a highly commendable job at Newcastle United and doesn’t look out of place as a manager in the top echelons of the Premier League. However, on the downside, he has never played for England and has zero firsthand experience of international football. And Newcastle will want some hefty compensation to give up their manager which may be hard to justify if there are other, cheaper, options.

Then there’s Graham Potter, who is available, but there are those who will say he is available for a reason, having done little to nothing of note during his brief tenure at Chelsea. I still think, given time, he would have got it right at Stamford Bridge, but we will never know, and that makes him untried at the top level of the game. And like Howe, he has no personal experience of big tournaments or playing for his country.

Then there is Lee Carsley, the current Under-21 boss who won the European Championships with his young team last summer. If the FA is looking for continuity, then this could be the perfect move. He knows most of the current squad inside out, has been with the organisation for several years, and only needs to move a few doors down the hallway.

But, on the other hand, he has no experience of managing big-name players and, more worryingly, he played his international football for Ireland, which must bring his Englishness into question.

Aside from that trio, the other English contenders are probably Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. What they lack in mainstream managerial experience, they make up for with their extensive knowledge of the international game. They have been there and done that for their country, time and time again, and that helps them command respect. But would that be enough to win over the FA decision-makers?

Truth be told, if the FA does feel compelled to go home-grown, they don’t have the luxury of a deep and expansive pool of coaching talent to dip their toes into. But you would also have to say that in many ways that’s their own fault for not doing more to bring through a new generation of English managers over the last decade.

Ultimately, I don’t expect this to be a slow process. England have competitive games in the Nations League coming up in the next couple of months and I don’t think the FA will want to go into those with a stopgap manager running the show.

So, who do I think will be the new, improved, lemon-scented version of Southgate?

Well, I think the FA will make all the right politically-correct noises during the process, including issuing lots of soundbites about promoting ethnic diversity when it comes to the interviews.

They will then explain how they have been incredibly thorough in their recruitment drive, interviewing a massive number of candidates. They will talk about looking at all the options and ruling nobody out for the role, irrespective of age, colour or creed.

And then they will appoint Lee Carsley.

E-mail: james.calvert@timesofmalta.com

Twitter: @maltablade