Football
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FA ready to begin next phase in search for new England manager - report

The Football Association is this week stepping up its search for Roy Hodgson's successor and will choose England's next manager with a long-term vision in mind.

Euro 2016 comes to a close on Sunday but the Three Lions' involvement is long since over, having bowed out in humiliating fashion to Iceland at the last-16 juncture.

Hodgson immediately called time on his four-year tenure and those charged with bringing success back the national team set up a three-point action plan at a meeting in Paris four days after the defeat in Nice.

Finding a new manager is one of the points FA technical director Dan Ashworth, chief executive Martin Glenn and vice-chairman David Gill settled on, along with undergoing a full assessment of Euro 2016 and undertaking a general review into England's displays across previous senior tournaments.

Press Association Sport reported that a consultation and review process has been completed now, with Gary Lineker, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand among the former internationals the FA spoke to along with figures such as Harry Redknapp.

It means the FA is now ready to step up its search for Hodgson's successor and hone in on candidates.

Sam Allardyce, Glenn Hoddle, Redknapp and Eddie Howe are the leading English candidates with bookmakers, although United States boss and former Germany striker Jurgen Klinsmann is the current favourite.

Odds shorted on Friday night after Germany general manager Oliver Bierhoff, a close friend of Klinsmann, claimed in several English newspapers that he believed the 51-year-old was already in talks with the FA.

Bierhoff said Klinsmann would be a "good fit'' for England given the resurgence he helped start with Germany, but the FA insists nobody has yet been formally spoken to about the vacant managerial position.

Gill and Glenn will attend Sunday's Euro 2016 final between hosts France and Portugal together.

The FA is understandably keen to avoid appointing a mercenary as Hodgson's successor and will look to try and build a long-term vision.

Rather than a quick-fix, the governing body is looking beyond the 2018 World Cup in Russia and wants to build a legacy similar to that seen in Germany and Spain.

That does not rule out an older manager from the post, but the FA is keen to have a clearer succession plan in place, allowing a philosophy to be fostered and taken on.

There is no timescale on when the FA wants a new manager and an interim solution remains a possibility when England start their World Cup qualifying campaign in Slovakia on Sept. 4.

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