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• Guardiola has 'not decided anything' amid England job speculation

  Pep Guardiola has played down expectations that he has decided to take over as the next permanent England manager.

  The 53-year-old would be a popular choice for the job, given the success that has followed him at every club since becoming a manager.

  Guardiola has won six Premier League titles at City, including each of the last four, while he won three league titles each with Bayern Munich and Barcelona. He is also a three-time Champions League winner and 10-time domestic cup winner as a manager.

  But when asked about the England job amid reports claiming his next step had been decided, he was not drawn on any speculation.

  "It's not true. I'm Manchester City manager," he told Che Tempo Che Fa, as per transfer football expert Fabrizio Romano.

  But despite his dismissive comments, Guardiola stopped short of shutting down the rumours that he could be considering becoming the next England manager.

  "I've not decided anything, everything can happen. So I don't know," he said.

  "Let's see on my future. I still need to reflect and decide what I want to do."

  Guardiola's contract at City is up at the end of the 2024-25 season, with the Spaniard yet to make a decision on his future at the club.

  Alongside any potential sanctions that City might face in their long-running battle with the Premier League, speculation about their manager's future has been rife in recent months.

  He is far and away City's most successful manager of all time, maintaining a win percentage of over 70% after 483 matches in charge, while he is second to Alex Ferguson as the manager with the most Premier League titles.

• Mbappe free to do what he wants, says Deschamps after nightclub controversy

  France manager Didier Deschamps believes Kylian Mbappe should be allowed to do what he wants, playing down rumours of a rift between the two.

  The comments came after Mbappe was spotted in a nightclub in Sweden on Thursday, the same night France beat Israel 4-1, having been left out of the squad by Deschamps to recover from an injury.

  Mbappe had suffered a muscle injury with Real Madrid last month and was given the international break to rest by the France manager. 

  But Deschamps was both unconcerned and unaware of the striker's excursion.

  "I don't follow the news of players who are not here," he said. "Kylian is following a programme with Real Madrid. I don't know if he was away or not."

  The controversy stems from rumours that Mbappe had asked Deschamps to only play him in 'important' international matches, as he prioritises winning the Ballon d'Or.

  Given that Mbappe had returned from injury for Real Madrid, coming off the bench against Lille in the Champions League earlier this month and starting the 2-0 victory over Villarreal in LaLiga a few days later, the decision to leave Mbappe out raised questions.

  Deschamps, though, was quick to give a logical explanation for the absence of their biggest player, who is just nine goals behind Olivier Giroud (57) as France's all-time top scorer.

  "Like any player for his club, he follows a programme. If players have days off, they are free to do what they want," added Deschamps.

  France face Belgium on Monday without Mbappe, having beaten them 2-0 at home in the reverse fixture last month.

  The striker only made a 23-minute cameo off the bench in that game, though he had the joint-most shots in the game (four) and the second-most touches in the box (five) among his team-mates.

  Deschamps' side are, in fact, unbeaten in their last five matches without their captain in the starting XI. They are a point behind group-leaders Italy at the halfway point.

• Carsley 'definitely not' ruling himself out of permanent England job

  Interim England manager Lee Carsley is adamant that he has not ruled himself out of the job on a permanent basis after hinting that he was not yet the world-class coach needed.

  England responded to their shock 2-1 defeat at home to Greece on Thursday with a 3-1 victory in Finland on Sunday.

  While the Three Lions were still not at their brilliant best, it was a marked improvement on their last match. However, conversation was dominated by Carsley's future and questions over who will take the role after the match.

  "Definitely not," Carsley said after being asked in the post-match press conference whether he felt it was too soon for him to become the senior manager. 

  "I tried to make it as clear as I could. My remit was for three camps. The point I was trying to make is it is one of the top jobs in the world.

  "I'm not part of the process, but it deserves a top coach. The players we have available, we've got a real chance of winning. That was the point I was making."

  Plenty had assumed that the 50-year-old's comments about still being on the path to becoming a world-class coach were effectively him putting himself out of the running for the job.

  Among a volley of questions about the future of the job, he was asked directly if that was an incorrect conclusion to draw from those remarks.

  "Yeah, definitely. Like I say, it's important that I do the best that I can," he said.

  "It's a privilege to do this job. I feel well trusted, it's a great job and, you know, whoever gets it will be fully deserving."

  Regardless of his comments in Helsinki though, Carsley does have a track record of being non-committal when asked about the potential of getting the job permanently.

  That is, according to him, because he has been deliberately trying to keep an open mind about things after learning from previous experiences.

  "I'm definitely reluctant [to say whether I want the job] because in the past, when I've done this caretaker/interim role, I've gone so far down the 'I don’t want the job' [route] that I've actually not done the job," he said.

  "One of the things I spoke about when I was asked to take temporary charge is that it's important I keep an open mind because in that case, I’m not being reckless with my decisions.

  "I'm thinking thoroughly about how the team should play, the squad I should pick, which is a challenge because squad selection is very difficult.

  "The amount of players we have to leave out and what we've got available for us, and I've got another camp to do. It's just a shame we can't play Greece next week."

  England's away game in Greece will be their most important in deciding their Nations League fate, with their upcoming hosts top of the group with a three-point buffer to second.

  Carsley's side will need to win and then better Greece's result at Wembley if they are to have any chance of returning to the top division in the competition. But the interim manager was ultimately pleased with what he saw on Sunday.

  "We won the game, scored three good goals," he added. "It was a shame we couldn't keep a clean sheet.

  "I still don't know the players that well yet in terms of the way the team reacts to a defeat and a setback, so I was thrilled with the way they responded."