Lawrie Sanchez has impressed against the world's top managers with Northern Ireland and feels ready for the Premiership after his appointment as Fulham boss, claiming today that both jobs can be down simultaneouly, in the short term at least.

Sanchez replaced Chris Coleman at Craven Cottage for the remaining five games of the Premiership season, and he views his 32-day contract as a "trial".

The team he has inherited are four points above the relegation zone and keeping them up would put him in the frame for a permanent post, although his contract with Northern Ireland until the end of the Euro 2008 campaign is potentially troublesome.

As Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce has found out while taking charge of England Under-21s, job-sharing creates easy targets for criticism when results turn.

Sanchez himself accepts that the situation would only work for a season but believes it can work in the short term.

"I believe both jobs can be done concurrently — not for great lengths of time like two or three years. But over six months it can be done," he said. "I would agree that more than a season would be more difficult."

Sanchez spoke of his ambition to return to club management while turning around the fortunes of Northern Ireland in the last three years.

Their famous victory over England proved to be no fluke, and they are currently top of their qualifying group after beating Spain and, more recently, Sweden.

An ideal situation for the former Wimbledon midfielder would be guiding Fulham to safety then reaching Euro 2008 with Northern Ireland, with the only question being whether he could remain at Craven Cottage for the second part of the task.

"I'd like to fulfil that contractual obligation to see Northern Ireland through this campaign," said Sanchez. "I'm here at Fulham for 32 days, if at the end of time I've done well enough that they might want me to stay then I'd like to talk about that.

"If Northern Ireland could qualify for the championships they would have one friendly in February and they play in the following summer. I think that could be done as well.

"A lot of managers take a break and go on holiday to recharge their batteries. My holiday would be running an international side."

For one season at least, Sanchez is confident both jobs can be done.

"When I was a player I attended university full-time and played full-time for Reading," he said. "Neither was affected by the other. So I've been in situations before when I've been told you can't do things and I've proven you can do them."