King wants Redknapp to stay
Ledley King
Tottenham captain Ledley King hopes Harry Redknapp snubs England and remains in charge at White Hart Lane.
Redknapp is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Fabio Capello as England manager after the Italian's shock resignation on Wednesday. The Spurs boss admits he considers the position as the "ultimate" job in football for any English manager and he did his chances no harm by masterminding a resounding 5-0 hammering of Newcastle on Saturday.
Tottenham's supporters made their feelings towards Redknapp clear by chanting "We want you to stay" on several occasions, and King echoed their sentiments by saying: "As a group of players we love him and hopefully he will stay."
He added: "This sort of speculation always happens in football, but we would love to keep him. Harry has brought the club on massively. We were bottom of the league when he first came in and the results picked up immediately.
"Straight away he showed his people skills, his ability to lift players even when their confidence was low. He has gone from strength to strength, brought in some good players, experienced players who know what it takes. It has been really good."
The Football Association met on Friday to draw up a shortlist of possible candidates to replace Capello and after being cleared of tax evasion on Wednesday morning, there now appears to be little preventing Redknapp from taking the job.
Redknapp is likely to remain in his current role until the end of the season, however, after admitting on Friday that it would be almost impossible to combine the two roles.
Having seen the club climb to third in the Barclays Premier League table, King is determined not to let talk of Redknapp taking the England job distract him and his team-mates in their quest for a first title since 1961.
"We need to keep our focus until the end of the season. What will happen in the summer will happen," the defender said.
"I am pretty sure the gaffer will be here until then."
Press Association
