FA to cast net wider after getting fingers burnt with Scolari

Scolari nearly became England manager in 2006 (GETTY IMAGES)

The Football Association plans to interview a range of candidates beyond just Harry Redknapp, the favourite for the vacant England manager's job, and they will not expect the new man to start until the end of the domestic season.

The Club England committee met on Friday to discuss their plans for the recruitment of Fabio Capello's successor and made a clear decision that in order to give themselves the best possible position in negotiations it would be futile to have just one candidate for the job.

The FA chairman David Bernstein said as much in Thursday's press conference when he said that the one candidate policy was dangerous for the governing body and could prove expensive in terms of wage demands. They have been caught in that position before, most notably six years ago with Luiz Felipe Scolari, who subsequently rejected them, and then in 2007 with Capello.

The committee have also decided that they will not take a manager away from his club mid-season. Ideally they would want the new man to be in place to take charge for Euro 2012 this summer but they have not ruled out the possibility – however unlikely – that he could come in after the tournament. Stuart Pearce is in charge of the senior team for this month's friendly against the Netherlands .

There will not be a decision made this week on the job and either way it would be impossible for the FA to speak to Redknapp who flew to Dubai on Sunday for a break with his wife Sandra after the exertions of his successful defence of the tax evasion charges against him came to a head last week.

There is a small range of English candidates, with Alan Pardew the only other English manager apart from Redknapp and Roy Hodgson making an impression in the Premier League currently. Pardew's announcement last week that he is not interested in the job means that he is longer odds than Pearce with bookmakers to get the job on a permanent basis.

Capello may yet be appointed Inter Milan manager after they lost again yesterday to Novara, Serie A's bottom-placed club, their third loss in four games. Claudio Ranieri is under pressure to qualify for the champions League. On Thursday, the club's president Massimo Moratti was moved to release a statement saying that he was not about to appoint the former England manager.