LONDON, Sept 15: Former Tottenham Hotspur coach Harry Redknapp says that being overlooked for the England manager’s job came as something of a relief.

Redknapp, 65, appeared to be the people’s favourite to take over from Fabio Capello when the Italian resigned over the decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy after he was accused of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.

But in the end the English Football Association handed the job -- considered by many in the game as something of a poisoned chalice — to Roy Hodgson, and Redknapp has revealed he was “quite relieved”.

He told Saturday’s Daily Mail: “I was enjoying my life at Tottenham and I did wonder how I would cope, if it happened, with what is part-time football. I do enjoy seeing footballers every day, being on the training ground.

“I was driving when I heard on the radio that Roy had got the job. It happened out of the blue. But I didn’t lose any sleep over it that night.

“I was almost quite relieved in a way — that I hadn’t been given a decision to make. The decision had been taken away from me.”—AFP