CAPELLO RESIGNS

[TF S4DK]

Numerous times on here. Thought it since his press conference in South Africa tbh when Terry challeged him, lost, but was then given back the armband...

But anyway the word from Marcotti was that Capello felt Terry not being the captain, unsettled Terry, which in turn unsettled the team/squad, and Capello decided a while ago that Terry was the centre back he had to rely on over all the rest.

[Captain Planet]

TF DUN TOLD YOU BWOI

[Heero Yuy]

Had a look at Steven Howard's Thursday column in The Sun and my goodness what a flawed piece, don't they have editors to put these guys in check and show they are factually wrong? Thank you to Football 365, they always do a great job with the media watch.

I'm Alone And I'm An Easy Target

Where would you like us to start with the sickeningly gleeful reaction from the press to Fabio Capello's departure? Well, Mediawatch is in a bad mood, so if you don't mind, we'll begin with the easiest target.

The Sun's Steven Howard is on predictably fine form. In line with his (and every other) paper's official policy, he wants Harry Redknapp to be Capello's replacement. Which is fine. However, let's have a look at why he thinks 'Arry will be better than Fabio.

Howard justifiably complains about Capello's ropey English, but writes: 'Though he did have enough grasp of the swear words to sit yelling at his players from the bench in South Africa. The clearest sign that he had totally lost the plot.'

Wait, he swore...so that means he's lost the plot? Good job we won't get that from Harry 'Just Facking Run Around A Bit Pav/I'm Not A Facking Wheeler Dealer' Redknapp, eh?

He goes on: 'Already past 60, he was set in his ways, prickly and a man neither to be crossed or disagreed with.'

Fabio Capello's age when he took over as England manager: 61. Harry Redknapp's current age: 64 (he'll be 65 in a few weeks).

And more: 'Capello should have been sacked after the World Cup - surely the worst performance by England at a major tournament. Yes, even more disastrous than the shambles under Kevin Keegan at Euro 2000.'

Sure, England faced tougher teams at Euro 2000, but they did qualify from the group stage in 2010.

And finally (well, not finally, but we only have so much time/space), about the World Cup squad, he writes: 'Theo Walcott didn't even make the squad, along with Adam Johnson and Scott Parker.'

We shall simply point to Mr Howard's column but a few weeks ago, on January 18, when he described Walcott as 'infuriatingly inconsistent'

Trust our media to be throwing out the foreigner card after being all up in arms over Terry/Ferdinand/Suarez/Evra, hmmm xenophobia from some?

The Mirror report Spurs will demand £5 million for Harry who want to appoint him by next week.

Steven Howard is such a c*nt, reading one of his articles is the ultimate sigh material.

[Benicio del Toney]

Now Sky Sports is saying he said he quit over a misunderstanding?

[Guest petercrotch]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099211/Stuart-Pearce-racism-row-Brother-Dennis-revealed-BNP-supporter.html?ITO=1490

[Rsonist]

Okay deep breath. Settle down. Fabio Capello has gone. Harry Redknapp will replace him.

It won't affect much. England won't be any better or much worse. The players are still the players and still won't be able to retain possession but will have enough quality to win some games. The same old story.

There is a case for Redknapp as England manager. Many don't like him and think he's not good enough, others do. It's like that with most managers.

But it is an appointment campaigned for by large swathes of the press and most of the broadcast media output; a triumph for favouritism over meritocracy.

They seem psychotically desperate for him to take over; they want it with a lust that I have never known at any other time. They talk about him as though he is a family member. It is nothing less than a determined, concerted campaign and like any political campaign; they protect their candidate from any criticism. Henry Winter says 54 and a half million Englishmen want Harry Redknapp and the other 500,000 are Spurs fans who don't want him to leave. This is just untrue but it was asserted on Radio 4 this morning as though it was. This is the mood music. A story has been created and nothing which does not fit the plotline is being reported. It is a Stalinist whitewash to get one man elected.

Serious critique of Redknapp's management of almost any club he's been in charge of has always been very limited because presumably, no-one likes to criticise a friend. But this is not good enough.

Simply put, almost all media outlets and employees seem biased in his favour. Nothing which paints him in a bad light is published. When Spurs play badly it is never his fault. When they lose, it is the players who lose. When they win it is his talent. His Spurs reign has been described by slavering acolytes as 'magnificent' and 'extraordinary'. It is in such hyperbole that this awful favouritism reveals itself.

He's done a very good job, but not an extraordinary job. No manager is this perfect. Everyone does things wrong. Redknapp is no exception. He is being rated far too highly. This isn't to say he is without qualities nor even that he shouldn't manage England, but the way he's talked about across the media you'd think he'd turned water into wine, Michael Dawson into Franz Beckenbauer.

Think otherwise? It will never be raised in the media. The voices against him are muted and not given a platform, Right away, as soon as Capello resigned, there was a media maelstrom, telling us 'everyone' wants Redknapp as manager, when that just isn't true. Even the normally excellent Mark Chapman on 5live got caught on this media-generated story arc said it was 'unanimous' before, to give him his due, qualifying the statement somewhat. There is always a tendency for a collective group think in football where assumptions are made by a few and adopted by many others. This must explain why Capello, win ratio of 67% and all, is being described as though he was a failure and a bad manager, a bad man, even.

There are and always have been fans who have questioned Redknapp's abilities and there are even now. You don't have to hate him or think him useless to think and understand that he is far from perfect. But we are painted a picture as though he is capable of transforming ordinary talent into worldbeaters, of making players feel so good that they perform extraordinary feats.

Stan Collymore was reporting players' favourable response to a Redknapp appointment as though this in itself would justify it but surely he is not so dumb as to not realise that players always back the new man, just as they always back the old man right up until he is sacked or resigns. They gravitate to the power. It is proof of nothing and even if it was, should the FA really appoint a manager on the say-so of the players?

"The foreign managers have been useless," one caller said to 5live. This is the dumb level reached. This is who supports the Redknapp appointment.

The anti-Capello sentiment, like the anti-Sven sentiment before it, is nothing less than vile. His achievements are wiped away in this media frenzy which re-writes history in the same way a totalitarian regime does.

Today's arrogant bully, let us not forget, was appointed to instil discipline into a side indulged by Steve McClaren and Sven. It is a bitter irony that Sven was castigated - by those who now accuse Capello of being too cold and aggressive towards the players - for indulging the WAG culture and not showing enough emotion. What is a man to do? These two men took England through five qualifying campaigns and lost just two games. The Englishman in the middle of them lost three in just one. To ignore this fact as an inconvenient truth is an emblem of the stupidity on display here.

It now seems forgotten that the players had grown fearful of the shirt and of playing at home before Capello arrived. All was not sweetness and light before the evil Capello snake polluted the Garden of Eden.

The impression we are being given, as ever, is that it's not the players' fault we're losers at tournaments, it is the manager. But it's not the manager, it is the players, players who - like Redknapp - are all too often and easily over-rated.

A quick example: Joe Hart. A great shot-stopper, now regularly called the best keeper in the world on TV and in the press. However, Hart comes for and flaps at a lot of crosses; the world's best keeper wouldn't. This awkward fact is just totally ignored, is not commented on, and the great shot-stopping is focused on instead. So when he plays for England and he flaps at a cross, and someone scores as a result, it will be presented as though it is out of character or that he's playing worse for England than his club. He's not. A false impression has been created.

I hope Redknapp's legendary man-management powers will transform England from also-rans into champions. I see no reason why, if true, it would not work immediately. Presumably he will be sacked if this is not the case. Virtually the only quality assigned to him by his followers is man management, so if that is proved bogus, the reason for his appointment evaporates.

We've been down this populist manager route before with Kevin Keegan who, oh, he was English and could speak English fluently. It never ends well.

This whole affair is far too emblematic of the hysterical, bi-polar, idiot culture which underlies the national game.

But this love will end in tears. It always does with England. They will turn on the man they now vaunt and adore. They eat their own, this mob. It is sick.

They think they have won but more truthfully it reveals we are all losers.

[Mr. Gayle]

After todays papers, I think Harry will prob having second thoughts, Digging up stories from 18 years ago.

[Benicio del Toney]

Harry should take Euro's and that's it, either way.

If he wins he's a hero, if he loses he can go back to Spurs and Champs League.

[Guest whowantswhat]

Harry should take Euro's and that's it, either way.

If he wins he's a hero, if he loses he can go back to Spurs and Champs League.

yh tbh

[Heero Yuy]

Okay deep breath. Settle down. Fabio Capello has gone. Harry Redknapp will replace him.

It won't affect much. England won't be any better or much worse. The players are still the players and still won't be able to retain possession but will have enough quality to win some games. The same old story.

There is a case for Redknapp as England manager. Many don't like him and think he's not good enough, others do. It's like that with most managers.

But it is an appointment campaigned for by large swathes of the press and most of the broadcast media output; a triumph for favouritism over meritocracy.

They seem psychotically desperate for him to take over; they want it with a lust that I have never known at any other time. They talk about him as though he is a family member. It is nothing less than a determined, concerted campaign and like any political campaign; they protect their candidate from any criticism. Henry Winter says 54 and a half million Englishmen want Harry Redknapp and the other 500,000 are Spurs fans who don't want him to leave. This is just untrue but it was asserted on Radio 4 this morning as though it was. This is the mood music. A story has been created and nothing which does not fit the plotline is being reported. It is a Stalinist whitewash to get one man elected.

Serious critique of Redknapp's management of almost any club he's been in charge of has always been very limited because presumably, no-one likes to criticise a friend. But this is not good enough.

Simply put, almost all media outlets and employees seem biased in his favour. Nothing which paints him in a bad light is published. When Spurs play badly it is never his fault. When they lose, it is the players who lose. When they win it is his talent. His Spurs reign has been described by slavering acolytes as 'magnificent' and 'extraordinary'. It is in such hyperbole that this awful favouritism reveals itself.

He's done a very good job, but not an extraordinary job. No manager is this perfect. Everyone does things wrong. Redknapp is no exception. He is being rated far too highly. This isn't to say he is without qualities nor even that he shouldn't manage England, but the way he's talked about across the media you'd think he'd turned water into wine, Michael Dawson into Franz Beckenbauer.

Think otherwise? It will never be raised in the media. The voices against him are muted and not given a platform, Right away, as soon as Capello resigned, there was a media maelstrom, telling us 'everyone' wants Redknapp as manager, when that just isn't true. Even the normally excellent Mark Chapman on 5live got caught on this media-generated story arc said it was 'unanimous' before, to give him his due, qualifying the statement somewhat. There is always a tendency for a collective group think in football where assumptions are made by a few and adopted by many others. This must explain why Capello, win ratio of 67% and all, is being described as though he was a failure and a bad manager, a bad man, even.

There are and always have been fans who have questioned Redknapp's abilities and there are even now. You don't have to hate him or think him useless to think and understand that he is far from perfect. But we are painted a picture as though he is capable of transforming ordinary talent into worldbeaters, of making players feel so good that they perform extraordinary feats.

Stan Collymore was reporting players' favourable response to a Redknapp appointment as though this in itself would justify it but surely he is not so dumb as to not realise that players always back the new man, just as they always back the old man right up until he is sacked or resigns. They gravitate to the power. It is proof of nothing and even if it was, should the FA really appoint a manager on the say-so of the players?

"The foreign managers have been useless," one caller said to 5live. This is the dumb level reached. This is who supports the Redknapp appointment.

The anti-Capello sentiment, like the anti-Sven sentiment before it, is nothing less than vile. His achievements are wiped away in this media frenzy which re-writes history in the same way a totalitarian regime does.

Today's arrogant bully, let us not forget, was appointed to instil discipline into a side indulged by Steve McClaren and Sven. It is a bitter irony that Sven was castigated - by those who now accuse Capello of being too cold and aggressive towards the players - for indulging the WAG culture and not showing enough emotion. What is a man to do? These two men took England through five qualifying campaigns and lost just two games. The Englishman in the middle of them lost three in just one. To ignore this fact as an inconvenient truth is an emblem of the stupidity on display here.

It now seems forgotten that the players had grown fearful of the shirt and of playing at home before Capello arrived. All was not sweetness and light before the evil Capello snake polluted the Garden of Eden.

The impression we are being given, as ever, is that it's not the players' fault we're losers at tournaments, it is the manager. But it's not the manager, it is the players, players who - like Redknapp - are all too often and easily over-rated.

A quick example: Joe Hart. A great shot-stopper, now regularly called the best keeper in the world on TV and in the press. However, Hart comes for and flaps at a lot of crosses; the world's best keeper wouldn't. This awkward fact is just totally ignored, is not commented on, and the great shot-stopping is focused on instead. So when he plays for England and he flaps at a cross, and someone scores as a result, it will be presented as though it is out of character or that he's playing worse for England than his club. He's not. A false impression has been created.

I hope Redknapp's legendary man-management powers will transform England from also-rans into champions. I see no reason why, if true, it would not work immediately. Presumably he will be sacked if this is not the case. Virtually the only quality assigned to him by his followers is man management, so if that is proved bogus, the reason for his appointment evaporates.

We've been down this populist manager route before with Kevin Keegan who, oh, he was English and could speak English fluently. It never ends well.

This whole affair is far too emblematic of the hysterical, bi-polar, idiot culture which underlies the national game.

But this love will end in tears. It always does with England. They will turn on the man they now vaunt and adore. They eat their own, this mob. It is sick.

They think they have won but more truthfully it reveals we are all losers.

Bars

realist article so far

[TF S4DK]

Harry Redknapp, Rube of the Year

England's most charming miscreant gets away with it again

Harry Redknapp does not have a soul, but he has a sort of dead-eyed Cockney sparkle that's served him as a pretty adequate replacement. England's most successful English soccer manager, he's also England's most successful allegations-shrugger-offer, "Who, me?"-expression-haver, preposterous-quip-to-distract-your-attention deployer, and crafter of bespoke logic-annihilating narrative Möbius strips. When 60 police officers crash-swarmed his house as part of a conspiracy sting in 2007, Harry insisted that they were merely soliciting his help catching other people. "They have to arrest you to talk to you," he straightfacedly told the press. Oh, of course! When questioned, during his tax-evasion trial last month, about the secret Monaco bank account he'd named after his bulldog Rosie, he produced one of the greatest answers in the history of criminology. "I don't even like calling her a dog," he said. "She was better than that." The jurors returned a verdict of not guilty. I'm pretty sure some of them high-fived.

There's something about Harry Redknapp that makes you want him not to be guilty, even though he is, always, of everything he's ever been accused of, and definitely also of much more. I have no evidence to support this, which would enable me, if I were on one of the almost infinite number of Redknapp juries that could plausibly be convened in the future, to find him not guilty. But I'm sure that it's true. You don't believe for a second that Harry's capable of self-reflection, much less of "having a conscience" or "practicing forbearance" or "experiencing remorse." You just find him not guilty because he makes being not-not guilty look like so much fun.

Here are some highlights from Harry's career. Don't try to pretend this isn't kind of horrifyingly fabulous.

• Was suspected of being given a bribe by an agent. The bribe was in the form of a racehorse named "Double Fantasy." Harry told an inquiry that he might possibly own the horse — he wasn't sure — but it didn't matter because Double Fantasy was a terrible horse and never won any money.
  

• Appeared, along with his feckless footballer-turned-pundit son Jamie and Jamie's pop-singer wife Louise, in history's most improbable Wii commercial. "Smash attack coming your way, dad!"
  

• Was once hit in the head by a soccer ball while giving a TV interview during practice. Harry interrupted the interview to tear into the player who'd miskicked the ball. Then, when the interviewer tried to coax him back into answering his questions, the still-seething Harry glared back toward the player and uncorked the immortal line, "No wonder he's in the f*ck*ng reserves."
  

• While manager of Portsmouth, was videotaped pretty unambiguously colluding with an agent to make an illegal approach to Blackburn player Andy Todd. The footage aired on the BBC show Panorama as part of an investigation into soccer corruption. Harry declared himself "one million percent innocent."
  

• Once reportedly torpedoed negotiations for a £20 million contract coaching Newcastle, a club in the north of England, because Newcastle wouldn't provide him with a private jet in which he could commute to work every day from his house in the south. "He likes taking his dogs for a walk along the coast," his brother-in-law explained.
  

• Won the 2008 FA Cup with Portsmouth, a moderately astonishing feat, then left the club to take over Tottenham Hotspur just before it was revealed that Portsmouth's finances were a smoking crater lanced with pulsating radioactive meteorite shards, all of which were owed money.
  

• While dealing with various widely reported and speculated-about investigations into his conduct, took perennial sort-of-rans Tottenham to the first Champions League spot in their history in 2010 and, this season, made them long-shot title contenders.
  

As the flagship member of a generation of English football coaches who have been more or less comprehensively left in the dust by their foreign counterparts, Harry derives part of his charm from the idea that he's a last point of contact with an older, purer form of football, a living zipline back to the days when all matches were played in the rain and nobody knew anything about tactics. "Just f*ck*ng run about," Harry once told a striker who didn't speak English. In these days of Xavi and false nines and "can Lampard play with Gerrard," there's a deep need in the English footballing psyche for a distinctively English way of approaching the game that doesn't go numb in quarterfinals, and Harry exploits this the way he exploits everything else — cheerfully and with a Boer War's-worth of dropped h's. Had the tax-evasion charge led to anything more serious, I'm convinced he would have sent Tottenham out in a WM formation. But he gets away with it because he has a face like tipsy bread dough and can't stop telling stories like this:

My dad would watch Jamie every week at Liverpool no matter where he played. He would get the train. My mum would make a cheese and pickle roll for Jamie to eat after the game. Now remember, Jamie's playing for Liverpool. Jamie would meet my dad after the game and take him back to the station and once Steve McManaman was in the car with them. My dad said to me: 'I felt bad I because I had a roll for Jamie but not Steve McManaman.' So I said to my dad: 'A roll? He's getting thirty grand a week!' But every week after that he had to take two rolls, one for Jamie and one for Macca. That was his life, never missed a game.

Liverpool, cheese-and-pickle rolls, grandfathers, Steve McManaman. Harry somehow makes you believe that English soccer, a game whose face-first slide into globalized commercialism is a source of mass anxiety, is really a simple old thing, straight out of "Autumn Almanac," just men and their snacks down through the generations. Moreover — and this is the real magic trick — he somehow does this while himself serving as the most visible representative of the dark side of commercialization. How can kickbacks and tapping-up and runaway club debt be so bad if Harry's there to tell you about the Christmas pudding his Aunt Rosie baked for Bill Shankly? And by the same token, why worry about Manchester City-branded motorbikes in Thailand when an English manager has his club in the top three?

On Monday Wednesday, the same day the jury in London handed down the not-guilty verdict, Fabio Capello gave in to the inevitable and resigned as manager of the English national team. As of this writing, Harry's the bookies' favorite to replace him. Landing the offer — not so much failing upward as getting exonerated upward — would be classic Harry. He'd be crazy to take the job. England is a mess, and the European Championships are only four months away. It would be like coaching the Charge of the Light Brigade. He would have no chance of winning. And the entire Harry edifice is built on success.

On the other hand, we already know he's crazy, right? I mean, it would be like coaching the Charge of the Light Brigade! Why not do one last outsize deed before retiring? Why not drive up the advance on the next autobiography? England's been waiting for a cheeky homegrown rascal to take over the national team since Brian Clough was passed over. The old comedian must relish the thought of taking his final bow on the biggest stage of his career. It would be the most ridiculous, and maybe the best, possible move, both for England and for Harry himself. They wouldn't win a tournament, but the press conferences would be amazing. No matter what he was accused of, Harry would simply look pained, give his eyes a cynical twinkle, and yank the tarp off some devastating quip. He could fly in a private jet. He could keep rolling the way he always rolls: ten miles high, impossibly brazen, and spotless as a ghost.

[Seydou]

, Harry derives part of his charm from the idea that he's a last point of contact with an older, purer form of football, a living zipline back to the days when all matches were played in the rain and nobody knew anything about tactics. "Just f*ck*ng run about," Harry once told a striker who didn't speak English.

TEARS.

PMSL

[O Fenomeno]

Lol 'Arry must be in the illuminati or something. The way he always manages to come out smelling of roses is incredible. From looking at doing porridge 24 hours ago to having a clear run at the England job now is just too unreal.

Levy must be rubbing his hands together right now, getting ready to screw the FA for every last penny in compensation.

If he goes who do you want

Tottenham would be foolish not to hire Benitez

So

Redknapp>England

Benitez>Tottenham

[Seydou]

Benitez > Madrid

[Mame Biram Diouf]

Lol 'Arry must be in the illuminati or something. The way he always manages to come out smelling of roses is incredible. From looking at doing porridge 24 hours ago to having a clear run at the England job now is just too unreal.

Levy must be rubbing his hands together right now, getting ready to screw the FA for every last penny in compensation.

If he goes who do you want

Tottenham would be foolish not to hire Benitez

So

Redknapp>England

Benitez>Tottenham

C/S

[O Fenomeno]

I would welcome him back

When Jose leaves , The shortlist should only have the names of Benitez,Laudrup,Van Gaal , Bielsa.

/

The England manager will be Redknapp and if he doesn't want it I really do believe Hodgson will get it.

[TF S4DK]

Like Arsene aint still on your list mate.

[O Fenomeno]

I can only see Wenger quitting if he loses patience with the abuse from supporters. There's no way he'd quit for footballing reasons; he'd feel that it's 'a setback' but has faith in the players to recover next year, and of course he is the best person to lead them. The board won't sack him because they'll need his ability to make transfer profits even more without CL revenue. The thought of Wenger going to Real Madrid is just hilarious. I can't think of any renown manager more inappropriate for the job.

[LS]

If Harry turns down the England job, he'll be the biggest stupid f*cking prick in history.

Talking about how he would love the England job for 2 solid years to then say no

Harry is one of the most luckiest managers in this country. Doesn't rely on tactics, media love him and never ever has pressure on him. I reckon he could take England to a 1/4 or even maybe semis but when it comes to making a good decision to win a football match he struggles.

[O Fenomeno]

Anzhi have sacked their coach

[TF S4DK]

Lol, the season just started 7 he just got the job didnt he?

[O Fenomeno]

Yeah I know but now their number one target from way back is available

[MrJibbles]

From when I heard Igor on Talksport saying the owner will do anything to get rid you knew it was a wrap.

Hilarious, sacking him, out comes the insanely huge chequebook.

[TF S4DK]

Redknapp for England

[TF S4DK]

HARRY REDKNAPP has a simple solution to get England moving again: Bring back Paul Scholes.

The Spurs boss is favourite to take over as national boss in the summer but first he wants to clinch Champions League football at White Hart Lane.

He has turned Spurs from an expensive laughing stock under Juande Ramos into an electrifying team that he has squeezed the best out of.

And he was deadly serious about Manchester United's Scholes being an elder statesmen who could still do it for his country.

Scholes, 37, quit football altogether at the start of the season but made a return for United in January and has demonstrated he can still do it at the highest level.

Redknapp, who has jetted out to Dubai with his wife Sandra while he considers taking the England job, has a habit of getting the best out of players many think should be going to the knackers' yard.

He said: "Age does not matter. No. Look at Paul Scholes. Let's be honest, you would love to have him at the European Championships. He's that good.

"He plays like the Spaniards, like Xavi, or Iniesta — he does not give the ball away."

Some say it's time for England's 30-somethings such as Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard to make way for young talent but Redknapp has always believed a team wins trophies only with 'men' in their team.

Redknapp explained: "Frank is still a top player. You write him off at your peril. Stevie Gerrard is still a top class player. We have got some good men in our midfield.

"You need characters like that in your side if you are going to win anything. And that's what players like Scott Parker are as well.

"Parker could be a good England captain. But there are some outstanding candidates for that job. Gerrard is a good candidate. There are one or two who could do it. But Scottie could do it for sure. I bent over backwards to get him here this summer.

"At the end of last season I just said to my chairman Daniel Levy, 'I want Scott Parker. I've got to have him. He's the player we need here, because you need good people not just good footballers'.

"He's just a fantastic boy — he's a family man, he loves his football, he trains well, he plays well. He gets on with the job.

"Scott's not a minute's problem. He's not Billy Big Time, he's just a great boy, and I think that's what you need at your football club if you are going to do anything. You need them."

Redknapp was as disappointed as anyone when England flopped at the World Cup in South Africa, thinking the core of players were good enough to go all the way.

He said: "I felt in South Africa was the best chance we had had since 1966 to win the World Cup. That was my honest opinion. I really could see us winning it.

"I thought it was a fantastic squad of players. But we were disappointing. Yet there's good players in England for sure, good young players.

"In tournament football, there's a big difference from the way we play at the pace in the Premier League to the way that England play.

"It's a slower game in international football to the way we keep the ball and the way the opposition play.

"Our game in the Premier League is about high tempo and moving the ball quickly as we did against Newcastle and not playing at a steady pace."

Redknapp is at pains to play down talk of taking over from Capello as the season moves into its crucial period with titles and European places being decided.

He said: "Listen, I'm starting to talk about international football all the time and at the moment my only focus has got to be on Tottenham.

"And that's the only thing I'm looking to at the moment. Next week we have got the FA Cup at Stevenage and I've got to prepare the squad.

"Then it's Arsenal and Manchester United here at White Hart Lane. We have just got to keep going.

"It's not fair for me to even think about it. I know I am going to get these questions all the time until something is decided. But if anything ever comes, then it's a different game. But at the moment there's nothing happening."

Maybe the advertisers at White Hart Lane knew something different as on the boards that surround the pitch holiday company Thomas Cook was offering Euro 2012 packages to Poland and Ukraine.