SOCCER:THE English FA yesterday said that the Tottenham Hotspur manager, Harry Redknapp, would be a leading contender to succeed Fabio Capello as England coach in 2012.
“Harry Redknapp is a great manager,” said the FA’s general secretary, Alex Horne. “Tottenham are playing great football and to qualify for the Champions League [knockout stage] from a position of being fourth favourites in the group is huge testimony to that. I would expect Harry to make a long-list [for the England job]. It may not be a very long long-list.”
Horne said no procedure had been discussed for appointing the successor to Capello, who is set to leave after the European Championship in 2012. “He’s there until 2012, which gives me 18, 19 months to prepare for that process. It is not a policy decision that they [the contenders] would be English. It is an absolute preference for certain individuals. It is not yet a board policy decision. We thought about this long and hard when we got Fabio Capello. We got the right man for the job and that is what we will do again.”
In the wake of England’s World Cup humiliation in South Africa, Club England’s managing director, Adrian Bevington, strongly suggested the next manager would be English.
Bevington, who is overseeing a review of lessons to be learned from the 2010 World Cup, said in August: “I think the English team should be managed by an English manager.” However, Horne told the BBC that was not set in stone: “It is not a policy decision that they will definitely be English. I will be finalising the selection-process criteria during the first few months of next year for internal discussion.”
Redknapp said this year that he would take the job if offered it when Capello steps down as arranged after Euro 2012. “People will always take it because, if you’re English, it’s the pinnacle of your career if you’re in management,” said Redknapp, whose credentials have been enhanced by Spurs’ performances.
“You’ve got to take the job if you get offered it. [But] whoever takes it gets absolutely slaughtered.”
Robbie Keane will be allowed to leave Tottenham next month, Redknapp has confirmed. Keane’s White Hart Lane future has been in doubt for almost a year, with the 30-year-old Republic of Ireland captain having been loaned out to Celtic for the second half of last season.
The striker has started only twice this term for Spurs, with Peter Crouch, Roman Pavyluchenko and the fit-again Jermain Defoe all ahead of him in the pecking order.
It has been more than a month since Keane’s last involvement with the first team and he has been linked recently with moves to Aston Villa and Major League Soccer’s newly re-formed Vancouver Whitecaps.
Confirming he had held talks with the player, Redknapp said: “I think he’d like to move – he wants to play, you know? He’s not used to not playing. All his career, he’s played and been a big player and he wants to play. He could sit here and take his wages, but that’s not him.
“He wants to play football. He trains hard, works hard every day, he’s shown a great attitude. And probably the hardest decision I had to make was last week: I couldn’t get him on the bench.
“It wasn’t easy when you respect somebody and what a good player he is or has been. It was hard, because he’s still a good player.”
Redknapp will not consider another loan for Keane when the January transfer window re-opens, insisting any move would need to be permanent.
“Whoever offers the biggest fee will, I suppose, be the answer in January,” said Redknapp, who added he knew nothing of the Whitecaps’ interest.
Meanwhile, England’s 2018 World Cup bid chiefs have been advised to stop blaming Fifa and look at their own failings.
Mike Lee, the man behind the marketing campaign for Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 tournament, said England’s campaign had been marked by a series of own goals.
Lee added: “If I’m being absolutely brutal about it and I look at international campaigns from across the world I think this England bid campaign was not Premier League, it was relegation and League One.”
