KEVIN Keegan placed his future in the hands of his European Championships under-performers as he insisted that he would have to be sacked for him to leave his post as England coach.

Keegan admitted in the immediate wake of England's early exit from the Euro 2000 finals that the opening two World Cup qualifying games against Germany and Finland would hold the key to whether he stayed in the job.

As he named his 24-man squad to face France next month in a friendly, with only a recall from Darren Anderton showing any real change from his Euro 2000 plans, he again admitted that he ''lives and dies by results''.

However, as he firmly denied previous reports that he offered his resignation shortly after his team's elimination, he went on to declare: '' If I'm going to go from here then someone's got to sack me.

''That's the only way I'm going to go.''

The FA have certainly consistently backed Keegan, although the tide could still turn against him if England were to lose against both Germany and Finland.

The England coach's priority is therefore to ensure he can somehow - in the space of just six weeks - revitalise a side which struggled at Euro 2000, with the friendly against France on September 2 as his only warm-up game.

To achieve that aim, however, he will rely almost exclusively on the same players he failed to mould into a successful side during the summer.

Newcastle's Alan Shearer, who has retired and been succeeded as captain by Tony Adams, Robbie Fowler, who is injured, and Richard Wright, who has been replaced by David James, are the only Euro 2000 absentees from this squad.

Andy Cole, who has recovered from the foot injury that ruled him out of the tournament, has replaced Shearer in the squad if not yet the starting line-up, while Steve McManaman has been retained despite his problems at Real Madrid.

While Jamie Redknapp, Ray Parlour, Trevor Sinclair and Fowler were not considered due to injury, Rio Ferdinand and Newcastle's Kieron Dyer have earned recalls and Anderton will hope to finally turn up fit for an England game.

With Shearer now gone, Keegan hinted at playing ''in a slightly different way, but that doesn't necessarily mean a different system'' and he will ensure that his squad take part in more afternoon training sessions.

But, while the England coach has also supported his backroom staff - ''when things don't go well people want to bayonet the wounded, but they are the right people for me'' - something evidently has to change. And quickly.

''I felt we under-performed when you look at the ability we'd got in the side,'' admitted Keegan as he looked back on the summer's evident problems.

''I took the blame for that and rightly so. It's the first job of the coach to get the talent he's got at his disposal to show that ability on the field.

''The questions that were asked of us were can you keep the ball, can you pass it through us, are you patient, are you just going to knock it forward. We didn't answer them very well.''

Keegan conceded that the ''criticism that we received - myself and to some degree the players in the way we played - was justified.''

However, he insists the public understand the problems he is facing, most notably with the lack - despite the promise of Ferdinand - of a ball-playing defender or a midfielder who can actually go past opponents.

''People in the street have been very supportive. I think they see Euro 2000 for what it was, a disappointment. But they say 'Don't worry about it, we'll get better, you'll get it right','' he added.

''What people understand is that we do have a problem at the moment if you're England manager, and that is that a lot of the English players are not playing in the key positions in the team.

''When you put that together you might not get as much invention as you'd like when games are tight.''

Some would nevertheless argue that the overriding problem remains the coach himself and his lack of tactical awareness, coupled with an inability to as yet get the best out of his players, despite their strong squad spirit.

There is still ability there to be tapped, as well as youth, even if Keegan seemed to have been closer to picking 38-year-old Stuart Pearce than teenager Joe Cole.

The challenge, however, for the England coach is bringing through those youngsters, such as Steve Gerrard, as well as achieving immediate results at the same time.

l NEWCASTLE boss Bobby Robson yesterday welcomed the return of Newcastle ace Kieron Dyer to the England ranks.

Dyer, left out of Kevin Keegan's final 22 for Euro 2000, had a disruptive summer and started the season on the bench at Manchester United after being "court martialled" by his club for drink stories.

But he was outstanding against Derby in midweek and Robson is happy at his recall to the squad to face France next weekend.

The Newcastle boss believes the youngster can't fail to succeed if he simply follows his advice to ignore off-field distractions and concentrate on football.

He said: "The lad is a gem. He has all the ability in the world and we have advised him just to focus on being a great player.

"He was everywhere against Derby and his performance in terms of running was amazing.

"His energy levels are second to none. I don't know what petrol he's on but I wish I had some!"

Dyer has moved out of his Quayside apartment and made a long-term Geordie commitment.

"I want to go on to become one of the Newcastle legends," he said