Remember the final weeks of the school year? When no one took it too seriously, when you could get away without doing your homework or even turning up, and you were casting your mind to the summer? That is how the England team feels right now as they prepare for their final Nations League games against Greece and Ireland.
Eight players, citing injury, have dropped out of the squad, replaced by youngsters with no previous international experience. The task at hand, getting promoted from Nations League B to A, feels like a low priority, especially with World Cup qualifiers around the corner. A bit like those internal exams you do a year before taking your GCSEs.
And to keep the analogy going, there is a new headmaster on the way, but they are not starting until the new year. In the meantime, the students only have to answer to the supply teacher, who they've already realised they can walk all over.
Thomas Tuchel has his reasons for not starting his role as England coach until January and leaving these last two games to Lee Carsley, but the new boss is already conspicuous by his absence. And he is wasting valuable time to assess his squad and plot the path to World Cup glory in 2026.