NOT SO FAST !!

It`s not unusual for me to be in a minority of one, to go against the grain, but I`ve been a little encouraged by reports today that the Football Association are taking their time over the appointment of the next England manager.

It has been assumed that Harry Redknapp will get the job as the people`s favourite, his case being pressed daily by the media and, why, even those pillars of reason and perception Messrs. Ferguson and Pulis have publicly backed the clarion calls for Redknapp`s accession.

But the Football Association might, just might, have other ideas for it seems they may be casting their net a good deal wider than the confines of White Hart Lane.   Now this might just be the tried and tested process of setting up a process involving a number of candidates so as to demonstrate that the chosen one can be shown to be the best man for the job.   But on the other hand, their may be genuine issues surrounding Mr. Redknapp that are making the FA proceed with caution.

For example, there will be the hard bargaining that will inevitably be involved with Tottenham Hotspur`s hard nosed chairman, Daniel Levy.   Then there`s the prospect that the much travelled Redknapp will want to bring his sidekicks - Kevin Bond and the pugnacious Joe Jordan - into the FA headquarters with him, thus making his recruitment that more complex and costly, never mind what Spurs will make of it all.   And, of course, it is just conceivable that there might be someone out there who is better and more acceptable to the FA and to the nation than the seeming inevitability that Mr. Redknapp has become.

But perhaps the most telling doubts surround the suggestion that the FA`s Director of Football Development, Sir Trevor Brooking, has `reservations.`   And so the FA are right to take their time and get it right rather than get it soon and it strikes me that the best way to approach it is to ignore the mass clamour, the media assumptions and the advice of  the likes of Ferguson and Pulis.   And maybe, just maybe, with Sir Trevor on board, I won`t be in a minority of one any more.