Harry Redknapp 'focused on Tottenham' despite England link

Harry Redknapp has said that he will not leave Tottenham "in the lurch" to become the next England manager.

The Spurs boss also admitted that he had not been approached by the Football Association about succeeding Fabio Capello, who resigned on Wednesday.

Speaking after Tottenham's 5-0 victory over Newcastle on Saturday, Redknapp said: "If I did get the offer, [I'd] have to consider the right thing to do.

"I'm focusing purely on Tottenham. I'm not going to leave them in the lurch."

Redknapp, 64, is largely accepted to be favourite to succeed Capello, who quit after disagreeing with the FA's decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy.

The head of the Football Association, David Bernstein said: "We do understand the hype - the guy [Redknapp] has done amazingly recently.

"He is a fine manager and he is English.

"There aren't 50 or 60 matches a year so, in a way, you could say this is more suited in some ways to an older person than club management where the demands are absolutely incessant."

However, when questioned as to whether he had had an approach from the FA about the job, Redknapp told BBC Sport: "None whatsoever. I'm concentrating on the job here.

"[I'm in a] very good position.

"I've got a job here and [I need to] focus on what's happening here.

"We've got Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal in the next few weeks and we want Champions League football."

On Saturday's first-half demolition of Newcastle, Redknapp added: "We played great stuff. [Emmanuel] Adebayor set the tone in the first 20 minutes. It was a good start and the all round team performance was good."

Tottenham striker Adebayor wants Redknapp to stay at White Hart Lane but suggested that England's need may be greater.

"He has to stay until the end of the season and from there we'll see," said the Togolese who scored one and had a hand in the other four goals.

"He gives us confidence, he has done a lot for me when I was going through difficult moments.

"England need him more than Tottenham but I assure you he'll be here until the end of the season and then we'll see what happens."

Meanwhile, Spurs and England midfielder Scott Parker said he was keen to see Redknapp manage both Tottenham and the national side.

"It would be pretty good," he told BBC Sport. "If the manager could do both it would be brilliant but at the moment the focus is Tottenham and what we do here."

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew believes the England job "is probably there if he [Redknapp] wants it" before admitting that the atmosphere at Tottenham played a part in his side's downfall.

"The fans and players made it clear [they want Redknapp to stay] because there was a bit of extra bounce in them," he said.

"I've got to shoulder some of the blame though. We probably had too many offensive players on the pitch and perhaps I should have come here and shored it up to play a bit safer.

"The game had gone [at half-time] and I want to make that clear to our fans.

"We had nowhere to go except pride and discipline in the second half and we did that.

"We had three midfielders missing and got punished for not having round pegs in round holes.

"But they're as good a side as we've played all year. They can challenge for the title. I don't see much between Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City."