FORMER Saints and Pompey manager Harry Redknapp believes Nigel Adkins would make a “fantastic” England coach – but not just yet.
The Spurs boss said he believes leading the national side is “an older man’s job”, although he again insisted he doesn’t know if he’ll get offered the job.
The 65-year-old is the bookies’ favourite to replace Fabio Capello, but said there are plenty of other managers who could be considered, including the man who has led Saints to the top of The Championship.
Redknapp said: "I suppose there's not a million candidates, you know, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce and whoever.
"And there's some young managers like Nigel Adkins and people like that, who in the future I'm sure would be fantastic but, at the moment, probably too young.
"It is an older man's job, I think. It's not a job for a young guy."
Redknapp repeated his belief the FA should not hire another foreign boss to lead England to this summer’s European Championships.
He said: "I said all along I think it needs an English manager. I think we need to give somebody a go.
"We've not achieved anything with foreign managers.
"Capello did okay for sure - bad World Cup (in 2010) - but we haven't really torn up any trees, so why not give it to somebody from here."
Redknapp reiterated he had yet to be approached by the Football Association and is determined not to let the speculation distract him from his current role.
He said: "It's a great job, obviously, to be manager of your country.
"It's difficult. At the moment, I've got a job to do at Tottenham and suddenly we've lost a couple of games.
"I've got to really keep concentrating on my job at Tottenham, which I do 100 per cent, and see what happens at the end of the year.
"Tottenham is my only focus, really.
"I want to make sure we get Champions League football this year."
