Lineker confused by FA's decision to delay England manager appointment

Posted Friday, April 20, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

Former England striker Gary Lineker is bemused by the Football Association's decision to postpone the naming of Fabio Capello's successor.

Stuart Pearce has been in charge for the interim but the FA has decided to wait until the end of the season before announcing who will take the reins for the European Championships.

Tottenham manager Harry Rednapp has been widely tipped to fill the role left vacant by the resigned Italian but Lineker is baffled as to why it is leaving the appointment until mere weeks before the start of the summer tournament.

"What is going on with the FA? When are they going to decide or even approach some form of England manager or let Stuart Pearce know he's got [the job] for the Euros? Somebody has to prepare,” Lineker told BBC Radio Five Live.

"The only reason I can think of - which I'm sure is the reason - is that they don't want to upset any club's applecart. If they were going to go for Harry Redknapp, which we all presume they will, they don't want to upset the end of Spurs' season - but it seems they have already done that now so they might as well get on with it.

The former Leicester striker went on to wonder how a manager can have his system in place in such a short period of time.

"They may think everything is in place and there are no [England] games until the end of the season, the training camp is all sorted, but the new man needs to start thinking and planning his team," he added.

"He needs to start thinking and planning about how other teams play and do his homework on them and things like that, now they're running out of time. If they were going to go with anybody, they should have done it by now."