A whole new ball game: Stuart Pearce found out that the England manager's job has its additional burdens

But there is no doubt the  country cannot help but veer from one extreme to another when it comes to the national side. 

England are either world-beating wonders or complete catastrophes we couldn't care less about. Which is why he's currently

'Harry the hero' before a ball has been kicked.

We've forgotten Redknapp still has the same squad of players to draw upon, the same injuries and suspensions, the same trouble with fixture congestion and club managers putting their interests first. Instead, we believe he has the Midas touch and everyone hopes beyond hope.

It will end the same way, in animosity and recrimination. It always does. But, for now, it feels like a new story.

At least the likeable and helpful Redknapp has the advantage of  home-grown popularity, a temporary airbag to cushion him from the blows should his reign start in difficulty.

Yet, however many friends  Redknapp has in the press, and however much goodwill he carries with him, he knows the score. He has to win. If so, Redknapp can play his wife Sandra up front instead of Darren Bent and  conduct every media conference through the open window of his car. None of it will matter. But all of it will matter if he loses.

It's not just the media who are impatient, by the way. The general public tends to be just as intolerant. Remember Kevin
Keegan, the last popular English 'messiah', quit the job not because a newspaper turned him into a root vegetable, but because a Wembley crowd watched a dismal defeat against Germany and chanted 'What a load of rubbish' in their tens of thousands.

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