FA determined to get it right

Alex Horne

Published: 7:56am, 10th February 2012
Updated: 8:47am, 10th February 2012

The four-man Club England board will sit down on Friday to begin the process of selecting Fabio Capello's successor adamant they will not be railroaded into appointing Harry Redknapp.

Overwhelming favourite for the job, it is thought Redknapp could be prized away from Tottenham, if not immediately, then at the end of the season. However, even though the 64-year-old ticks all the right boxes, FA chief executive Alex Horne is keen to ensure the correct procedures are followed before Capello's replacement is named.

"We understand the feeling of the nation and supporters," said Horne. "Fans of England are very important when it comes to choosing the right person for the job. But we have to sit down and look long term. We owe it to ourselves to write up the job brief and make sure we sit down calmly and ensure we have an exhaustive list."

Horne will be joined in his quest by FA chairman David Bernstein, Club England managing director Adrian Bevington and FA director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking.

And the brief will involve far more than just managing a football team. It is anticipated the successful candidate will pay more than lip-service to the National Football Centre in Burton, providing a lead to the numerous coaches and youth teams that will be based there.

And whilst non-English candidates will be considered, they will need to have a better grasp of the language than Capello mastered in his four years at the helm.

For his lamentable failure to learn English properly, Capello was paid the princely sum of £6million a year, part of an overall £50million lay-out on foreign coaches who have made negligible improvement on England's fortunes.

Steve McClaren was paid nothing like as much and as the groundswell of opinion in favour of Redknapp continues to build, it is not thought Bernstein is in favour of matching that figure.

However, Bernstein is adamant there will be no penny-pinching should the FA decide on Redknapp, or an alternative home-grown candidate.

"We will have to assess things very carefully," he said. "But let me be absolutely clear we are not going to do anything on the cheap. We have to get the right person for the job and we will pay the proper market rate."