And the name of Harry Redknapp will slap them in the face, so compelling is his case.

Whichever way you look at it, Redknapp ticks all the footballing boxes.

He knows the English game back to front, having managed Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth twice, Southampton and Tottenham.

He retains rare energy and enthusiasm at the age of 64, evidenced by his 5am drive every morning from his home at Sandbanks on the south coast to the Spurs Lodge training ground.

He is a renowned tactician, a lover of attacking football, a passionate patriot and speaks the language fluently, so long as the listener has a rudimentary knowledge of rhyming slang.

This week he ticked the final box when he led Tottenham into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 1-0 aggregate victory against AC Milan, having already defeated Inter Milan at the San Siro in the group stages.

Success in Europe is vital for an international boss. It confers respect in the eyes of players, supporters and administrators. It demonstrates tactical nous, something which was evident in the triumph against AC Milan at White Hart Lane when Redknapp curbed his naturally attacking instincts to prove he could be pragmatic and cautious when required.

There will be those who say off-field baggage goes against Redknapp but so long as that is satisfactorily concluded, could anyone come up with anyone better suited to take England into the World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014?

Redknapp's English rivals in the Premier League simply do not compare.

Steve Bruce has done a half-decent job at Sunderland and Ian Holloway has worked wonders on a shoestring at Blackpool but they are not serious contenders. Neither is Newcastle's Alan Pardew, while West Brom boss Roy Hodgson's short-lived experience at Liverpool counts against him.

There is a school of thought which favours Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce being handed the senior job - after all, he was brought in to shadow Capello in the hope of providing continuity.

But would Pearce bring a winning mentality and an intuitive grasp of what makes players perform to their optimum potential? It is doubtful.

Not, at any rate, like Redknapp - who in two-and-a-half years at Tottenham has put his arm around not only individual players, but an entire football club.

The last time Tottenham fans felt so uplifted about their club was when they were hailing the Double winners of 1961.

They have been living in the past, banging on about Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay and Bobby Smith, ever since.

What Redknapp has given Tottenham fans is a beguiling present and the chance of a glorious future. A future based on their cherished traditions of enterprising football. Redknapp's greatest achievement is delivering that hope at such breakneck speed.

Arsene Wenger is in the fifth year of a five-year plan designed to return Arsenal to trophy-winning ways and the cupboard is still bare.

Compare that with Redknapp's journey.

On October 31, 2008, Tottenham were propping up the Premier League. Rock bottom. Trailing behind Bolton, Wigan, Newcastle, West Brom and Stoke with more than a quarter of the season gone.

The talk was of relegation, the demise of a once-proud club. That is where Redknapp's Tottenham have come from. It is doubtful whether anyone - Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho - could have done better.

"This is an impossible dream that we have achieved so far," Redknapp said late on Wednesday night as celebrating Tottenham fans chanted "Are you watching, Arsenal?"

More pertinently, that question should be put to the Football Association.

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Barcelona reminded us why football is the most entrancing sport on the planet in the Champions League on Tuesday. Arsenal did not. The Gunners were overly cautious, totally outplayed and manager Arsene Wenger faces a touchline ban after UEFA charged him with improper conduct for a post-match rant at referee Massimo Busacca over the dismissal of Robin van Persie.

Yet after a match defeated Arsenal will want to forget there was one performance worth remembering. That of Jack Wilshere.

Wilshere was the one Arsenal player to come close to matching the passing accuracy, vision and dribbling skills of Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

At just 19 Wilshere, on a bad night for Arsenal, came of age in the Nou Camp. That is why it was a good night for England.