2,850 days ago, Gareth Southgate was appointed England manager on a temporary basis.
In a scramble after the fiasco with Sam Allardyce, the FA desperately needed someone to hold down the fort while they searched for a permanent replacement.
Southgate, who was then managing the under-21 side and laying the foundation for the future, was seen as the natural choice to step up to the senior team.
His excellent work, which included developing young talent and implementing a progressive playing style, did not go unnoticed, and he was soon offered the role of England manager permanently. Reluctantly, he accepted, and the rest is history.
After England's defeat against Spain in the UEFA European Championship final, the former Middlesbrough boss resigned from his role as England manager.
Southgate has divided opinion amongst the English public and has done so for a good few years, with some labelling him as too cautious and others claiming he constantly picked favourites.
But what cannot be denied is his work bringing the nation together and having the public fall in love with the national team for the first time in decades.
In that regard, Southgate leaves a considerable hole, one that will be difficult to fill, but who is the right person to take over the post?
Is it someone already within the FA? Is it an experienced European manager? Or is it one of the top English managers in the Premier League?
The role of England manager is a highly scrutinised and pressurised position, second only to being Prime Minister in terms of being in the English public's eye.
We here at VAVEL take a look at five potential managers who could take over from Gareth Southgate as the new England manager.
Graham Potter has been out of work since April 2023, when he was sacked by Chelsea after a catastrophic seven-month spell in charge of the West London club.
This period out of work has seemingly been by choice after reportedly turning down offers from Lyon, Ajax and Leicester City.
It certainly makes you wonder if he is waiting for one particular job; if that is the case, is it the England job?
Potter first captured English football fan's attention when he took Östersunds FK to the Emirates Stadium in 2018, guiding his team to a shock 2-1 win.
After that, Potter went from strength to strength, getting the Swansea City job before quickly moving to Brighton.
Potter shone on the South Coast as he transformed the Seagulls from a route one side under Chris Hughton, constantly battling for survival, to a free-flowing, high-pressing, and tactically intelligent side.
He combined young, untested players with experienced players who were seen as past their past and pushed Brighton to ninth.
This level of tactical innovation and savvy thinking makes Potter such an appealing prospect to England fans.
Over the past couple of years, Southgate has been accused of being one-dimensional and fearful of letting attacking players off the leash; if appointed, Potter would seek to address these issues straight away and transform the team from an unimaginative, lethargic-looking side to a fast-paced, menacing one.
The job he would have to undertake is not too dissimilar to what he did at Brighton. Take a team set in their ways, reinvigorate them, and help them take the next step.
The naysayers would point to his time at Chelsea as a reason he should not get the job.
His time at the Blues was nothing short of a disaster, and he could not make the step up from a mid-table Premier League side to one of the established top six.
Some thought he struggled to manage the egos of top-level players and was way out of his depth.
But is it fair to judge him on his time at Chelsea?
At that time - and to an extent now - the club was all over the place, with its scattergun transfer policy under the new ownership of American Todd Boehly. It was hardly the ideal environment for a young manager to make the step up.
Players arrive for England duty pre-motivated, and without the baggage they carry from their club, this may be the ideal way for Potter to learn how to deal with big egos.
Oh, look, another ex-Chelsea manager.
Mauricio Pochettino's first six months at Chelsea were poor as he struggled to gel a team filled with new signings. However, as the months went by, it looked as though he was starting to understand his team's strengths and weaknesses.
The Blues finished the season in sixth but with the feeling that next season may be better under the Argentine.
Seemingly out of nowhere, it was announced at the end of the season that Pochettino and the club had mutually agreed to part ways.
Rome was not built in a day, but it was clearly not being built quickly enough for the higher-ups within Chelsea.
Pochettino is highly regarded in England for his sensational work at Tottenham Hotspur. He transformed a young, inexperienced side into Champions League finalists in just under five years.
Under his stewardship, they became mainstays in the competition; how did they do that? Unadulterated hard work.
One thing a Pochettino side always does is run themselves into the ground. While at Southampton, his team were outrunning everyone in the league.
When Nuno Espírito Santo took over from him at Spurs, they went from running more than 18 teams in the league to being bottom in terms of distance covered.
Southgate lamented his team's inability to press at the European Championship: "We are not pressing well enough, with enough intensity".
Under Pochettino, the side would press intelligently, and there would be patterns in the way they did it.
England looked undercooked at Euros despite getting to the final. The former Paris Saint Germain manager would seek to put that right by having the team at peak fitness as they entered major tournaments.
The former Spurs boss already has an existing relationship with squad members. He was extremely close to Harry Kane while at White Hart Lane and got the best out of Cole Palmer at Stamford Bridge.
Some in the English public will recite the tired rhetoric that you must be English to manage England.
Ultimately, the best person for the job is the best person, regardless of nationality, and Pochettino would be a superb candidate.
The name with the least experience on this list is Lee Carsley, who has been in charge of the England Under-21s for three years.
In that time, he won the side's first piece of silverware since 1984, when they beat the Spanish Under-21s 1-0 in Georgia in 2023.
He did so by playing what was seen as many as a 4-4-2, but it was far more fluid than that.
It involved the likes of Anthony Gordon and James Garner roaming from position to position, and the side seemed to blossom under the former Everton midfielder's intricate tactics.
If the FA were to hire Carsley, it would be a real show of belief in their system and their desire to promote from within.
It would also make the Under-21s job a more attractive option for young, exciting coaches, as it would show there is a clear pathway to the Men's senior team job.
There is precedent for this, as Southgate himself was managing under-21s before getting the promotion, but the reality is that this job may have come a couple of years too early for Carsley.
This current England team is one step away from winning major competitions, and they do not really have time to allow someone to learn on the job.
All those years ago, when Southgate was appointed from the Under-21s, England were in the wilderness and in need of desperate change. That is less the case this time around.
Carsley may be a good option for the future, but not right now.
If England have not appointed anyone by the time they play the Republic of Ireland in September, then Carsley may be granted the job on an interim basis while they search for a more long-term appointment. If he impresses, then who is to say he should not get the job?
Thomas Tuchel has become something of an elite level journeyman over the past few years.
Since getting the Borussia Dortmund in 2015, he has managed some of the world's most prestigious clubs, including Chelsea, Paris Saint Germain, and Bayern Munich.
He is a serial winner, winning at least one trophy at every club he has been at since taking over at Dortmund.
This England team lacks that winning mentality despite having reached two European Championship finals already; they need a manager who puts winning before anything, and Tuchel may very well be the right coach for that.
If the German were appointed, it would undoubtedly be a short-term relationship, but maybe that would be preferable for the FA. He could come for one tournament cycle and help drag England to the finishing line, which they keep coming short of.
It may also have been a short-term relationship, given that the former Bayern Munich manager has a habit of falling out with the higher-ups.
He has a track record of saying things how they are, which may put the FA off Tuchel.
They were blessed to have harmony in the ranks during Southgate's tenure, and appointing Thomas Tuchel would be accepting risking that harmony. But would it be worth it if he brought them the trophy they desire so much?
The ex-Chelsea coach is a pragmatist and will pick formations and players for matches rather than reverting to favourites, as Southgate was accused of on many occasions.
After managing so many of Europe's elite, taking on an international team for a couple of years may be a welcomed change of pace.
With the German job not appearing available any time soon, England may be the next best option.
To be the England manager is to be a politician as well as a football manager. You must be diplomatic, a good talker and be able to bring people together.
Eddie Howe can do all of that, plus he is pretty good at all the football stuff, too.
Howe has impressed fans ever since the heady days of Bournemouth. Over two spells at the club, he guided them from League Two to the Premier League.
When they were in England's top flight, they were on a shoestring budget and comfortably had the smallest stadium in the league. But that did not stop Howe from helping the Cherries survive for five years.
Once the side were finally relegated, Howe took some time out of the game before getting the Newcastle job in November 2021. Despite a change in ownership that made them the wealthiest club in the world, the Magpies were still languishing near the bottom of the division.
Howe realised it was not a lack of technical skill within the dressing room but rather a lack of confidence. He quickly brought the group together, made astute signings and helped the Geordies survive.
Howe has gone on to bring Champions League football to the North-East and forged a relationship with Newcastle fans that goes well beyond the pitch.
These attributes of developing relationships with players and fans are transferable to being a national coach, and there is reason to believe that Howe would take to it like a duck to water.
Southgate's football was not the best, but his personality and attitude were a huge reason he was a success with the Three Lions, and Eddie Howe could build on the exceptional work that Southgate has already done.
The issue with getting Howe is two-fold.
The first problem is he is under contract with Newcastle, and that contract does not expire anytime soon. That would be fine if he were not so well thought of at St James' Park, but given that he is loved up there, it would be challenging to try and get Newcastle to agree to any deal.
The second issue is that Eddie Howe loves the hustle and bustle of club football. He loves arriving at the training ground early and leaving late. When managing a national team, that everyday buzz is gone, and it is hard to replace that.
Undoubtedly, Howe has the tactical acumen to coach on the world stage and would be a natural progression from Southgate, but the issue is getting him to Wembley.
The timing may be wrong for this deal to happen, but no matter what, Howe will be on the shortlist, and the FA should at least attempt to get him out of Newcastle.
