"Four - No more" from Keegan shapes England crisis

Kevin Keegan has agreed to be the next manager of England - but only for four games.

His decision to stick by his contract with Second Division side Fulham puts the English FA back to square one in their search for a successor to Glenn Hoddle who was fired two weeks ago.

The FA begin their search for a fourth England coach of the season this morning with only Roy Hodgson seemingly keen to take on the job. Keegan, 48, is only going to be working on a part-time basis with the national side for four games until June 9th when he reverts back to Fulham full-time.

This snub from their first choice leaves the FA considering a move to hire a foreign coach again but they are almost certain to reject the idea. If the Keegan experiment goes wrong the authors of the unprecedented situation - acting chairman Geoff Thompson and acting chief executive David Davies - will be left facing the blame in the month they stand for election to take on the running of the English game on a permanent basis. To look abroad for a leader of the national side would be an admission of defeat on their part and a shaming indictment of football coaching levels in England for the past three decades. They will not sanction such a step.

Keegan takes charge of the England side for the first time on March 27th in the do-or-die Euro 2000 qualifier against Poland. Then follows a friendly in Hungary on April 28th before June 5th Euro 2000 deciders against Sweden on June 5th and Bulgaria in Sofia on June 9th. All through this period he will be working with Fulham to try and get them promoted to the First Division in a combination that could plunge the England team into complete crisis.

The former Liverpool and Hamburg star is a well respected and very popular figure in the game and his motivational powers appear unrivalled on the domestic English scene. He has won no honours as a coach and has no international experience but was always the FA's first choice to succeed Hoddle. Keegan was not prepared to leave his Fulham contract, however, and his stewardship of the England team leaves the players facing two revolutions in personnel and tactics inside six months.

A press and media campaign to make his appointment from June a long term one should not be discounted but Keegan wants to see out his contract with Fulham and that expires in June 2000. Qualification for the Euro 2000 finals seems unlikely so Keegan could theoretically return in summer 2000 to guide England in the World Cup qualifiers if his four games prove a success. The scenario is now blurred with intangibles and suppositions. The players must be thinking "If this happens then what if that ? Then how about...?" Hardly the ideal preparation for England's credibility to be renewed and a tough assignment for any coach - let alone one working only part-time.

Any notion of the continuity which technical director and caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson was trying to achieve has been abandoned. The experiment appears to depend on England qualifying for the Euro 2000 finals but without three wins in their next competitive matches the FA will be asking a new man to take charge in the summer with only World Cup qualifying from September 2000 to occupy him in a competitive sense. Only former Internazionale and Switzerland coach Roy Hodgson has consistently claimed he wanted the job. There could be eerie echoes of July 1990 when Graham Taylor used every available interview to stake his claim to succeed Bobby Robson and his tenure ended in a disastrous failure to reach USA '94.

With the chaotic decisions coming from the English FA the return of Glenn Hoddle should not be discounted in the summer. England's bizarre season could yet have a fitting conclusion.