England are in dire state and there’s only one man for the job
NO CAPTAIN, their star striker banned for the first two games of a major tournament and, after last night’s bombshell, the England team is without a manager too. It’s a mess of quite staggering proportions.
By undermining Fabio Capello the Football Association has shot itself in the foot to such an extent that they are now forced to go cap in hand to Harry Redknapp and do whatever it takes to get the Spurs manager on board. Any other appointment simply won’t suffice.
After such a high-profile court case, emotionally I can’t see Redknapp being ready to take on the England job straight away, while I’m sure he’ll feel he owes Tottenham after the club stood by him throughout the trial.
At 64 years of age, however, it’s now or never for him as far as England is concerned and although the cards are completely in his favour, he can’t afford to be too coy.
But I can certainly envisage a situation whereby he steers Spurs into the Champions League before assuming control of the national team before the start of Euro 2012.
Redknapp will have a job to lift the spirit in the camp as I’m sure the players will feel severely let down by the FA’s actions, but if anybody is capable of making the best out of a bad situation, it’s Harry.
Trevor Steven is a former Everton and Glasgow Rangers star who represented England at the 1986 and 1990 World Cup.