Howe defends comments

DON HOWE last night rejected claims that he advocated Terry Venables, the favourite to be the next Ireland manager, as a potential assistant to new England boss Fabio Capello.

Howe, who is on the FAI three-man committee headhunting Steve Staunton’s successor, was responding to claims that he had compromised this role by recommending Venables to the FA as someone with the “knowledge of the English game (which is) missing from Capello’s otherwise impressive cv”.

Formerly a coach himself during Venables’ stint in charge of the English side in the mid-90s, Howe claimed he was misquoted in his Daily Telegraph column when he expressed the “hope” that Capello would make Venables his assistant.

“I didn’t write the article,” Howe told Newstalk106’s Off the Ball Show. “We don’t have to say for the sake of it why we used that word or say why we used this word. It’s what people make out of it.

“The article was about Capello. I know him quite well. It’s common sense, I don’t think his English is very good. I think he will need someone… I think he’s bringing his own team. But he’ll still need someone who knows the English team. I used Terry Venables as an example. I said he (needs) a type of man like Terry Venables because he did that for McLaren.

“Everybody agrees with what I said. He will need somebody English to help him.

“I hope people in Ireland will understand what I’m talking about. Things will carry on the way they’re going and the (FAI) will still keep their ideas open about who is going to be the next manager.”