There is no manager, no captain, the best player is suspended for the first two matches, but not to worry, according to Football Association chairman David Bernstein everything is in place for the European Championship this summer.

We can presume from this that Bernstein’s secretary has been on to ba.com and has boxed off seat 1A, business class, to
Krakow. That his hotel suite is reserved and well appointed. His usual driver has been notified and will pick him up in plenty of time for a fast track check-in at least an hour before the flight.

You will also be pleased to know that Bernstein, Adrian Bevington, managing director of Club England, Alex Horne, FA general secretary and Sir Trevor Brooking, director of football development, have cleared their diaries today in order to turn their attention to the appointment of the next England manager. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Particularly the last manager, Fabio Capello.

Stepping out: Fabio Capello and wife Laura leave their Belgravia home the morning after the Italian resgned

The next one? Well, we’re still not sure. Bernstein would not rule out an interim to succeed the caretaker, Stuart Pearce, meaning if a long-term boss follows after the European Championship, England’s players could work with four managers  in the space of eight matches, over  nine months.

Indeed, Bernstein was not ruling anything out yesterday: English, British, foreign, temporary, permanent, it was all on the table for discussion.

The undead are probably excluded, plus woodland creatures and Hope Powell, because Bernstein did not stray from the masculine gender when discussing Capello’s successor. Still, you never know. If enough people tweet it, a bandwagon could roll, then it’s all aboard for the FA board and who knows where it ends?

Actually, we know where it ends. It ends with the FA offering the job to Harry Redknapp, No 1 in a field of one. All this talk of high-powered conferences makes it sound as if there is a whole host of candidates to discuss, indeed Bernstein rather optimistically talked of it being ‘interesting to hear who comes to us’.

If that was a hint to the present Tottenham Hotspur manager, however, the FA chairman may wait some time for the telephone to ring. Redknapp holds every good card in this deck, and knows it. He is the people’s choice and the players’ choice, and we have already seen how much the FA love a populist call. He is the best English candidate by a mile, and the clamour is for a homegrown candidate, too.

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