Harry only has four weeks to save England

Posted Friday, March 02, 2012 by The Sun

Harry only has four weeks to save England
TO THE RESCUE ... how Harry Redknapp would look dropping in to save England

IN time of national crisis, we often turn to the Paras.

And so it is with the FA as they wait for Harry Redknapp to don his red beret and come dropping out of the sky to save the day.

As Trevor Brooking said this week: "You could probably get someone parachuted in a few days before Euro 2012.

"The whole issue is about timing but we are not in a rush.

"The main thing is to be aware of all the sensitivities surrounding the job of appointing the next England manager — and there ARE sensitivities.

The main ones being Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur and Daniel Levy. Though not necessarily in that order.

Tottenham's last league game is on May 13. The first of England's two pre-Euro 2012 friendlies is in Norway on May 26.

The FA, though, are keen to give England players a week off at the end of the Premier League season.

Which means the European Championship finals squad will probably not get together for warm-weather training in Spain until the week starting Monday May 21.

Which gives Redknapp, if he still wants the job, just FIVE DAYS to prepare for the game in Oslo. Three days later, the England manager has to submit his 23-man squad to UEFA.

Four days after that England have their final friendly against Belgium at Wembley before flying out to their Polish base of Krakow on June 6.

Then comes the opening game with France in Donetsk on June 11 — a round trip of some 2,000 miles to take on a rejuvenated opponent who beat Germany 2-1 in Bremen on Wednesday.

That made it 18 games unbeaten for Laurent Blanc's men since they returned from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after a campaign even more humiliating than England's.

On the same night that England were being beaten 3-2 at Wembley by Holland, the Swedes — second up in Kiev on June 15 — were recording an impressive 3-1 victory in Croatia.

While co-hosts Ukraine, the third and final group opponents in Donetsk on June 19, won 3-2 in Israel.

Even if caretaker Stuart Pearce was to be retained, there is a lot for the man in charge to be getting on with irrespective of Brooking's claim that "everything is in place."

Even more so should, as Brooking suggests, Redknapp be parachuted in at the last minute.

And when would Redknapp actually turn his attention to England matters? And how much does he know of France, Sweden and Ukraine?

And will he recall old favourites like Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard? And what about John Terry?

And who does he want as skipper? And who fills in for the suspended Wayne Rooney over the first two games?

We cannot expect him to be giving it too much thought right now, though.

Some people might think it an easy enough balancing-act for a man of his experience.

That he and Kevin Bond could reel off their 23-man squad on the trip back home to Dorset from Tottenham training.

Yet the Spurs boss has quite enough on his plate at the moment not to be sidetracked by anything to do with England — despite the clamour all round for immediate FA action.

There's the small matter of the current mini-Tottenham slump — a run of six league games in which 10 points have been dropped culminating in last Sunday's 5-2 thrashing at the Emirates. The one team they certainly do not need to be facing at White Hart Lane on Sunday in an effort to get out of the nosedive is Manchester United.

Their last win over Alex Ferguson's side was on the final day of the 2000-2001 season when a chap called Willem Korsten produced two spectacular efforts in a 3-1 victory at the Lane.

Dutch winger Korsten, a 26-year-old plagued by hip injuries, would never play again as a professional.

Since then the two clubs have met 21 times in the league, United winning 16 and drawing five.

Spurs will also be without the suspended Scott Parker while Ledley King's season is catching up with him.

Then there are niggling injuries to Rafael van der Vaart, Gareth Bale and Kyle Walker.

Some Spurs fans claim their team suffers from Redknapp's inclination to always play his strongest XI, that he should rotate more to prevent the accumulation of injuries at the business end of the season.

It may be coincidence, but after Spurs won at Sunderland on February 12 last season to go fourth in the table, they won only one of their next 10 league games.

Their recent poor results — despite the 5-0 monstering of Newcastle — means the cushion between themselves and Arsenal and Chelsea is now down to seven points.

And after United, it is a trip to in-form Everton, followed by Stoke at home and a six-pointer at Stamford Bridge.

And so it will go on until the final game of the season.

Yes, their run-in looks good with games against Swansea (h), Sunderland (a), Norwich (h), Bolton (a), QPR (a), Blackburn (h), Villa (a) and Fulham (h).

But it is as much about holding their nerve as anything else.

And a huge part of that will be down to Redknapp's powers of man-management.

What he and his chairman do not need as they seek to nail down the points to ensure Champions League qualification are phone calls from the FA being made public — and the governing body know this.

Should Spurs continue to struggle, it will be all to easy for the FA to be accused of wrecking Tottenham's season.

No wonder Brooking talks of sensitive issues.

There is much for Redknapp to ponder right now.

But, as yet, that doesn't include strapping on his England parachute.