Pompey star Kranjcar backs Redknapp for England job

FA chief executive Brian Barwick, who will seek advice from Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger about who should take over, could do worse than also consider the opinion of Portsmouth's Croatia midfielder Niko Kranjcar.

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Having embarrassed Scott Carson at Wembley with a dipping strike, Kranjcar sealed Portsmouth's sixth consecutive away win in all competitions with a 30-yard thunderbolt.

Redknapp remains the Premier League's highest-placed English manager at sixth and Kranjcar sees no reason why his club manager could not make the transition to international level.

"He has an international team at Portsmouth," said Kranjcar.

"It would be sad to lose him but I would be happy for him because I think he would love the job and I think he would be very good.

"He likes to play football; he likes to keep the ball.

"I also heard from Slaven Bilic and the players who played under him.

"He was one of the big reasons I came here. He has proved with his results at Pompey and West Ham that he can fill that position."

Equally, Kranjcar is at a loss as to why team-mate David James is not first-choice England goalkeeper.

"David James has been the best goalkeeper in England for the past two seasons since I came over.

"So, for me, it is a strange decision that he is not England's No 1," said Kranjcar.

His omission against Croatia came as a mystery to James as well.

He said: "I fully understand the situation with Scotty playing in Austria, but then effectively I was demoted to No 3 and kept on the bench for the biggest game against Croatia.

"I wouldn't say I was upset, but I was disappointed.

"My inclusion in the squad was to put pressure on Robbo and to compete for a place.

"I've got no intention of finishing. I'll see who the next man is and who his favourites are."

Birmingham goalkeeper Richard Kingson gifted Portsmouth their opener on his Premier League debut.

Like Carson, he will no doubt look to James' ability to recover from costly mistakes early in his career.

Caretaker manager Eric Black's first major change, having taken over from Steve Bruce, was to drop experienced Maik Taylor in favour of the Ghana keeper.

It proved no more successful then McClaren's decision to replace Paul Robinson with Carson when Kingson allowed Sulley Muntari's weak first-half effort to dribble through his hands.

Black said: "My policy has always been that a team should be selected based on work in training.

"Maik has been away on international duty, Richard Kingson was looking good and I thought he deserved his opportunity."

LION CUBS

For all the Africans in Portsmouth's ranks, there were still seven Englishmen. Not one qualifies for the Under 21 side, however, although Glen Johnson and David Nugent were regulars and have senior caps. Birmingham's Liam Ridgewell and Stuart Parnaby were Under 21 players but are unlikely ever to appear at senior level.