It is no secret that it would be good for the FA if Carsley was to succeed.

Before the Greece defeat last week, a senior source at the FA said it felt the process was “going well”.

That smooth transition, following in the footsteps of Southgate, would back the work they are doing at St George’s Park to create a pathway for players and coaches through the youth set-ups into the senior team.

FA technical director John McDermott and CEO Mark Bullingham are playing a key role in the recruitment process, and after last week’s results there will be even more discussion around Carsley’s final camp in November.

The FA is not commenting or offering guidance either way when asked whether they have conducted any interviews with potential candidates – which is giving space for the media debate about the process and who might be a candidate to rumble on.

It is true that most other job recruitment is done in a confidential manner and the FA believes its process should be no different.

The FA has always made clear it wants the best person available and Pep Guardiola – widely accepted as the world’s best coach – is out of contract at Manchester City at the end of the season. He has been linked with the role in the media, but he may yet extend his contract for a fourth time at City – and whether he could be tempted financially by the FA is another question.

Two nights before England’s match in Helsinki there were reports former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was in contact with the FA, subsequently denied by his agent. Newcastle manager Eddie Howe is another name linked, along with out-of-work former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter.

On Sunday, Carsley said the England manager should be a “world class coach”, but then attempted to clarify that he was not ruling himself out of the permanent job on that basis.

“Confusion reigns,” reflected BBC Radio 5 Live correspondent John Murray, who added, “but perhaps only on the outside.

“Within the FA it smacks of all options being kept open. It is possible Carsley’s England could win next month’s final two group matches handsomely, finish top of the group and win promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League.

“It’s also possible that the top trophy-winning coach that Carsley referred to is either not available now or only will be at a later point. Hence the keeping of all options open.

“And so on the outside the guessing game will likely continue into next month.”

THE late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite pony Emma – who moved fans to tears at her funeral – is to pay one final tribute to the monarch at Ascot.

In an image shown and shared around the world, beloved Emma waited dutifully as the late Queen’s coffin went along Windsor’s Long Walk to the castle in September 2022.

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Emma was Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite horse – and the tribute, to come this Saturday, will also be in honour of her love of and dedication to the sport of racing.

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One of Emma’s horseshoes is being donated to Ascot to create a new trophy.

It will be presented to the ‘best shod horse’ at the Royal track for their blockbuster Champions Day meeting.

The shoe has been gifted by Queen Elizabeth II’s former horse handler Terry Pendry, report the Daily Mail.

He worked for the Royal household for 25 years and often rode alongside the late Queen in the Windsor grounds as part of her daily exercise.

An Ascot racecourse spokesperson confirmed the touching tribute will be paid this weekend.

They said: “It is extra special to have a trophy made from one of Emma’s shoes who was a horse so well loved by Queen Elizabeth II.

“Horse racing and Ascot were both so important to her during her life and to tie this all together will be very special.”

The late Queen used to present the trophy for the race named in her honour.

In 2017 she smiled alongside Frankie Dettori after he rode Persuasive to victory in the Group 1 contest over a mile.

King Charles has inherited the multi-million pound racing operation his mum cherished so much.

Queen Camilla is a lover of the sport too and they were seen enjoying much of Royal Ascot this year.

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Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will make a return to the football field at some point in the 2024 season, head coach Mike McDaniel told reporters Monday.

It’s the first time that McDaniel has explicitly stated there’s an expectation for Tagovailoa to play again this season after he suffered a concussion in Week 2. However, McDaniel wouldn’t divulge when the team is expecting Tagovailoa’s return, adding that he’s “not playing this week” against Indianapolis (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

“There’s still information that he’s seeking this week and as far as timelines go,” McDaniel said. “I do expect to see him playing football in 2024, but where that is exactly, we’ll let the process continue since we still have time before we can even entertain anything. 

“We’ll make sure that he’s diligent this week and assess after that.” 

Tagovailoa was placed on injured reserve shortly after suffering a concussion in Week 2 in a  loss to the Buffalo Bills. The move immediately ruled him out for Miami’s next four games, so he isn’t eligible to return to practice after Week 7. The next game he can play in, if he’s activated, is the Dolphins’ Week 8 tilt against the Arizona Cardinals. 

The concussion marked Tagovailoa’s third since the 2022 season. He initially had a fencing response after his helmet collided with Bills safety Damar Hamlin on a run in that game, sparking similar concerns to the concussions he suffered in 2022. He was able to walk off the field on his own power after the collision. Tagovailoa was expected to meet with multiple independent neurologists following the injury, McDaniel shared at the time.

The Dolphins’ offense has suffered without Tagovailoa. They lost three games in a row before beating the New England Patriots in Week 5, 15-10, to improve to 2-3 ahead of their bye week. Miami ranks last in scoring (12 points per game).

Tagovailoa has statistically been among the league’s best QBs since he started playing under McDaniel in 2022. He threw for 4,624 yards, 29 TDs and 14 interceptions in 2023, helping Miami reach the playoffs in each of the past two years. 

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“To be honest, today’s eleventh place was the best of my life.”

There was no shortage of storylines to follow in the Petit Le Mans final round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship on Saturday.

A farewell victory for the Cadillac-Chip Ganassi Racing partnership before the GM manufacturer throws its lot in with Wayne Taylor Racing by Andretti next year was a feel-good conclusion following heartbreak for the WTR/Andretti crew, when an unsighted Ricky Taylor clouted a stranded Mustang in the middle of the road to end his and Filipe Albuquerque’s title hopes. Then, there was a day of celebrations for Porsche.

To cap a dream day for the Weissach manufacturer, as Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr clinched the IMSA SportsCar Championship GTP title with third place at Petit Le Mans in their Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, AO Racing also delivered the GTD Pro title with Laurin Heinrich.

The result hailed by AO team principal Gunnar Jeanette followed a run that was far from straightforward for the #77 911 GT3 R affectionately known as ‘Rexy’, in which 23-year-old former Porsche junior Heinrich was joined by Julien Andlauder and Michael Christensen.

Five laps in arrears, it meant a title that was Heinrich’s to lose went uncomfortably close to the wire.

The German, who shared the car with Seb Priaulx for the first six rounds of the season, had enjoyed a 99-point margin over Heart of Racing Aston Martin driver Ross Gunn heading into the weekend and extended it further by snaring pole while Gunn managed third.

But that 104-point advantage was slashed to just four after 10 hours of racing at Road Atlanta.

#23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo: Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas, Roman De Angelis

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Had Gunn managed to overcome the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra for second, in the car he shared with Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis, he would have completed a remarkable turnaround. Ultimately, the Briton came up just 1.845s short.

The problem for Heinrich was a freak one: a faulty cable connection on the steering wheel that caused several unscheduled pitstops. Jeanette explained: “Everything was running perfectly initially but then we suffered a steering wheel problem. Our drivers had their work cut out for them because the car only shifted up every third or fourth attempt.”

Door-stepped for his thoughts during the race, Heinrich gave an honest assessment.

“We couldn’t upshift anymore and then obviously being stuck in second, third or fourth gear around the lap, you break the rest of the car and you lose a lot of time,” he said, before adding: “It’s a nightmare, it’s the worst [thing] what could happen. We just needed to finish somewhere in the front and just not retire. I still hope I wake up from this nightmare, but I doubt it will happen.”

For Gunn and HofR, the team that will take Aston Martin into IMSA’s GTP class and the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar division next year, Heinrich’s setback amounted to a gift.

“We got a nice present early on in the race,” reflected Gunn after a day he described as “an emotional rollercoaster”.

“We knew that we needed some luck on our side to win the championship, and we definitely got that early on.”

AO’s mechanics did their work in identifying and solving the problem, but the #77 Porsche was effectively powerless to affect the outcome. The ball lay in HofR’s court, but AO’s cause was helped by the presence of two interlopers that were not contesting the full season.

Like the Risi Ferrari 296 of Serra, Davide Rigon and Alessandro Pier Guidi, the leading Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan driven by Jordan Pepper, Franck Perera and Mirko Bortolotti was a Michelin Endurance Cup entrant focused on the longer-distance rounds. But both would take crucial points away from Gunn’s bid to deny Heinrich.

“The race remained a nail-biter to the very end,” said Jeanette. But ultimately, for HofR, it wasn’t to be, despite Gunn setting the fastest GTD Pro lap of the race during what Riberas called “one of the best stints I’ve ever seen”.

“We threw everything at it,” said a disappointed Gunn.

But for Heinrich, he was left to reflect on the 1m17.881s lap that had given him that crucial pole position as the difference-maker that helped to give him the greatest success of his young career.

Harlequins simply could not afford to leak tries so heavily again and head coach Danny Wilson said their defensive improvements paved the way for success on Sunday.

“We didn’t talk about Sarries much, we spent a whole week talking about how if we get our game model right with the improvements we are trying to make in defence, then we give ourselves a real chance,” Wilson told BBC Radio London.

“I’m really pleased, it’s a massive win. To win a derby game at home, which we haven’t for a while against Saracens, and a fully-loaded Saracens at that, is really pleasing.”

Wilson said Quins have placed more importance on how they are going to contain teams during preparation for games so far this season.

“There are two things. One, we’ve brought in a new defence coach which has given us a real clarity of system from Jason [Gilmore], which is excellent,” he added.

“Second thing is as a group, we’ve put defence first more often. So, we’ve started meetings with defence clips. We’ve started sessions with defence.

“Quins do not want to lose our attacking identity but if we don’t improve our defence, we have to go and score five tries every week to give us a chance of winning.”

Reinier de Ridder is ready for a fresh start after leaving his former home at ONE Championship and inking a deal to join the UFC roster.

There’s no secret that things gotten contentious between the Singapore based promotion and several fighters over the past couple of years but de Ridder isn’t trying to bash his former employers now that he has a new home. Like any job, de Ridder says there was good and bad about his years spent in ONE Championship but he definitely knew it was time for a change.

“It’s been good for a long time and it’s been bad for a pretty long time now as well,” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “I think they’re struggling in a sense and some stuff is not being handled the way it should be but it is what it is.

“I had a very good run in the beginning. They gave me a lot of fights. In ONE, I was able to make it a full time thing with fighting. So I’m very grateful for that part. But the last couple of years weren’t that great.”

After fighting three times in 2022, de Ridder’s activity dwindled without a single fight in 2023 and then only competing once in 2024 before ultimately leaving the promotion. He did make an appearance in 2023 for a grappling match under the ONE umbrella but his activity was obviously far greater earlier in his career.

When his contract ended, de Ridder fought once for UAE Warriors before signing his deal to join the UFC roster. He never knew for certain if he was going to fight for the UFC but de Ridder admits every fighter dreams about that opportunity at one time or another.

“I’m looking forward to getting in there,” de Ridder said about his UFC debut. “Looking forward to getting some activity. I’m very happy, very psyched, it’s cool.

“It’s the league we all look up to. Every fighter wants to fight in the UFC. Every fan wants to watch UFC. It’s been asked a lot of times over the years so it’s very cool to finally be there. Of course, it was clear I wasn’t going to keep going with ONE. But there were different options. But when you start fighting, when you start this crazy career, everybody wants to fight in the UFC. I’m getting to the later stages of my career so this was the moment to either go get it or never do it again. I had to go to UFC.”

Despite holding two titles simultaneously in ONE, de Ridder admits the announcement that he signed with UFC got him more attention than anything he experienced with his former promotion.

“That’s the crazy part,” de Ridder said. “I went through every stage of an MMA fighter’s career. I went from unranked to title challenger to two-division champion and it always got some traction. People liked it and respected it.

“But now I just started all over again. So I go fight unranked again [in UFC] and it’s a bigger deal than becoming a two-division champion. It’s funny.”

As far as the biggest differences between the two organizations, de Ridder pointed to a pair of changes that he’s actually excited about now that he’s with the UFC.

“The UFC is the UFC of course, so it was always the goal,” de Ridder said. “Always in the back of my mind. There’s a lot of different perks over ONE. Next to that, the weight thing is a bit more clear, there’s drug testing. It’s just better.”

When it comes to weight classes, ONE actually instituted much different rules than those used by the UFC or other promotions in the United States. ONE has hydration testing in hopes of curbing extreme weight cuts and the divisions there were altered so every weight class is actually different than those in other promotions.

For instance, de Ridder previously reigned as champion at both middleweight and light heavyweight but in ONE middleweight is from 185 to 205 pounds while light heavyweight is 205 to 225 pounds. In organizations like the UFC, middleweight stops at 185 pounds before moving up to light heavyweight.

De Ridder says the early implementation of the hydration testing and the weight class changes were good at ONE but over time he feels the program just didn’t work.

“The idea of the hydration test was amazing,” de Ridder said. “In the beginning, they had some secondary measures to be sure that you really were around that weight when you fought as well. But over the years, those were eroded a bit and the guys just kept getting bigger and I was the only dummy who still made the 93kgs (205 pounds) with breakfast and some water. Some stuff’s changed there on this point.

“Look I’m not looking forward to the weight cut and there is still a way to negate the weight cut. There is a way to stop all the fighters from cutting weight but the hydration test is not enough, as you’ve seen.”

When it comes to drug testing, ONE Championship actually stated as far back as 2019 that athletes were being tested but de Ridder says his bigger concerns came down to the out-of-competition testing required under the UFC’s anti-doping program.

“In this regard, the UFC is the place to go,” de Ridder said. “America is the place to be for fighting clean athletes. That’s just better.”

Perhaps what he’s happiest about with his move is that the 34-year-old Dutch fighter is getting back to business sooner rather than later with his first fight in the UFC booked for Nov. 9 against Gerald Meerschaert.

He pays credit to his manager Ali Abdelaziz for wasting no time getting the deal done and helping him book a fight and de Ridder promises that he’s going to soak in every aspect of this opportunity.

“I’m very, very grateful for this,” de Ridder said. “Ali is working his magic.

“It’s pretty cool. This is something I put my mind to, to try and enjoy all this stuff as well. I’ve always been a bit of a hater with all the interviews and all the people coming up to me and asking me stuff. But I’m trying to bit more grateful about this stuff.”