Less than 24 hours after Newcastle United forcefully rejected their approach for the services of Bobby Robson, the English Football Association reacted quickly yesterday in naming an alternative leadership to the 67-year-old Robson. Plan B at the FA means Peter Taylor, manager of Leicester City, and Steve McClaren, number two to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, taking charge of coaching and picking the England team for their friendly with Italy in Turin on November 15th.
As Robson would have been, Taylor and McClaren represent a short-term answer to a long-term problem - they are in charge for the Italy game and the Italy game only - but it is likely to meet with approval from the England players, several of whom come from United.
But Adam Crozier, the FA's chief executive, said that the more serious business of finding a long-term full-time replacement for Kevin Keegan will begin in earnest this week. Crozier revealed that the six man committee formed by the FA to find a new manager has settled on a short-list of three names.
Crozier said that none of the three have been approached as yet but confirmed that among the trio at least one of the names belonged to a non-Englishman. With the Lazio coach Sven Goran Eriksson and the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger almost certainly two of those on the list, there is even a chance that no Englishmen will feature on it.
Despite Crozier maintaining his public stance that Terry Venables was not the intended victim of the FA's "integrity" clause, it is unlikely Venables is included. A foreign appointment would be a major break with tradition but then Crozier indicated that this is the beginning of an era of change that the English game should have embraced 10 years ago at international level as the French did.
"We're confident about the three people we have identified," said Crozier, "and I think it's the kind of thing where you'll get quick answers. I would expect it will be sooner than Christmas that we'll make an appointment. It is the beginning of a journey that should have started years ago."
For Taylor (47) the news completes a resurrection of his reputation within the FA. Formerly of non-League clubs Maidstone and Dover Athletic before working at Southend United and Gillingham, Glenn Hoddle made Taylor, a Hoddle team-mate at Tottenham, his under-21 coach. Under Taylor the side lost just four of 21 matches but when Hoddle was ousted and Howard Wilkinson became the FA's technical director, Wilkinson commandeered the job for himself.
Taylor has said that he hoped the FA were "embarrassed" by the decision but he insisted yesterday that reports of differences between himself and Wilkinson were "exaggerated". Taylor said he had the support of his board at Filbert Street and that he hopes his temporary post will not affect his job at Leicester. He added that while his ambition is to be the England manager, he feels it is too soon now.
For McClaren (39) the offer from the FA came as "a bit of a surprise. I'm very grateful to Manchester United, the manager and the board, for giving me permission to contribute to the England cause." McClaren has impressed universally since making the potentially difficult transition from being Jim Smith's assistant at Derby County to filling the large boots of Brian Kidd at Old Trafford.
But United won the treble in McClaren's first season and in the 62 Premiership games that McLaren has prepared the United players since February 1999, only five have been lost.
He and Taylor now appear to be favoured by the FA to play a long-term role within England's coaching staff but that is also dependent on the new manager wanting them to. Despite yesterday's news, England remain in flux.
