Alan Shearer says new England manager should forget Euro 2012

The new England manager should forget about winning Euro 2012 and look ahead to the World Cup in 2014, according to former captain Alan Shearer.

Fabio Capello resigned from his post this week, less than four months before the start of the tournament.

Shearer has said he wants Tottenham's Harry Redknapp to replace Capello.

"Just because Capello's gone and a new one [is set to come in], it's not all rosy. England will probably not win the Euros," he told BBC's Football Focus.

Shearer, who scored 30 goals and won 63 caps between 1992 and 2000, said whoever the new manager is, he should use the European Championship to plan for the World Cup in Brazil.

He added: "If we can use that [Euro 2012] as a stepping stone for the new manager to feel his way in, to do very well, to get a feelgood factor right, then look to Rio two years after that. That can be the test for us."

Spurs manager Redknapp is currently the odds-on favourite to take over, although the 64-year-old insisted this week that his focus is on the Premier League club.

Capello quit after publicly disagreeing with the Football Association's decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy while the Chelsea defender awaits trial in July for a racially aggravated public order charge after an incident with QPR's Anton Ferdinand. Terry has always denied the accusation.

England play three friendlies before their first group game against France in June, with Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce appointed caretaker coach for the friendly with the Netherlands at Wembley on 29 February.

Shearer continued: "Do we ever go into a tournament with great preparation? There always seems to be something.

"It looks bad, but give it a month of two when someone has been appointed. I think things will have calmed down.

"I think they can do it part-time between now and the end of the season.

"Stuart Pearce has been put in for the Holland game, which is the correct decision. That will give the new manager time to look around, time to think about what he wants to do, where he wants to go."

Meanwhile, former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson says the England job is not impossible.

The Swede, who guided England to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup quarter-finals, told BBC Sport: "It's not an impossible job - you have to have a little bit of luck, of course, when you are in the big tournaments.

"I think every manager in the world would take that job. I was extremely happy and proud to have it."

Eriksson believes there are enough big characters in the England dressing room to help the squad overcome the issue of Terry being stripped of the captaincy.

"I think they will resolve it, but it's sad in one way because there's always something big coming up a few months before a Euro championship," he added.

"It's like someone wants to disturb the peace in the team.

"You have so many captains in the England team like I had. Rio [Ferdinand] is one, Steven Gerrard is one, Frank Lampard is another one - you could go on."

Watch the full Alan Shearer interview on Football Focus on BBC One on Saturday, 11 February from 1215 GMT.