Stony faced: Trevor Brooking, Adrian Bevington, David Bernstein and Alex Horne brief the media following Capello's resignation

They will sell it as a complex, layered role, with responsibility across a wide range of topics. But, bottom line, lose in Moldova and you’re stuffed. Disappoint in the finals and you’ll  never recover.

Capello didn’t. Exiting Wembley on Wednesday night he left ridiculed and unloved, his time falsely dismissed as a failure, his mood unfairly characterised as uninterested. The moment a tournament goes wrong, the England manager is doomed.

If he takes this post, Redknapp should not wish for more than a crack at the Brazil World Cup in 2014. He has the European Championship as a bonus this summer, then the big one, then goodbye.

If he came close to victory, as Sir Bobby Robson did in 1990 or Terry Venables in 1996, then he could always renegotiate at the end of his term. If he flopped, he wouldn’t want the aggravation anyway. Some say he may not want it now; particularly once he has a chance to review Pearce’s first day in the job.

The caretaker manager has not picked a squad, taken a training session or played a game, and already he is lost in the FA’s moral maze. The board’s ad hoc approach to the John Terry captaincy issue has put it at the forefront of ethical standards on race.

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