Pardew: 'Harry will find it hard to walk away' (From The Northern Echo)

Pardew: 'Harry will find it hard to walk away'

8:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in Newcastle United News By Scott Wilson

ALAN Pardew feels Harry Redknapp will face a difficult decision if, as expected, he is offered the opportunity to replace Fabio Capello as manager of England.

Redknapp is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Capello following the Italian's resignation on Wednesday, and FA officials are expected to convene this week to draw up a shortlist of three or four potential candidates.

The Tottenham boss appears keen to be considered, although he last week ruled out the possibility of managing England on a part-time basis.

That would mean severing his links with a Spurs side that remain viable title contenders after Saturday's 5-0 hammering of Newcastle, and having devoted so much time and energy to assembling such a talented group of players at White Hart Lane, Pardew expects it to be difficult for Redknapp to simply walk away.

"It's a decision that Harry will have to make," said the Newcastle boss. "I would think he's going to get a phone call, and he'll have to make his own decisions from there.

"I'm not going to talk for Harry Redknapp, but there's no doubt he has a fantastic team (at Spurs). I think he has a very tough decision in terms of what he's going to do because this is not a team that you'd want to walk away from.

"You'd certainly be very pleased to see that Spurs team in an England shirt. That's a very good team there - probably the best we've played all season - and you'd have to say they've got a chance (of the title)."

They were certainly impressive on Saturday evening, although Newcastle's slipshod early defending was undoubtedly a key contributory factor to the final scoreline.

The Magpies failed to get close enough to the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale early on, and by the time they eventually tightened up and altered their shape, the game was effectively over.

"The first half, indeed the first 20 minutes, were a disaster for us," admitted a candid Mike Williamson. "You just can't do that against quality teams like Tottenham and we paid the ultimate penalty. We got it together a bit more in the second half, which pleased us, but of course it was far too late.

"We didn't give Demba (Ba) or Papiss (Cisse) much to feed off, just scraps really, and that obviously didn't help either. Credit to Tottenham though, they're a top side and deserve to be where they are in the league.

"Our sole aim now is to bounce back against Wolves as we've got ourselves into a great position in the league and want to keep pushing on."