World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst has backed Glenn Hoddle to be the new England manager -- calling on the Football Association to appoint an Englishman even if there is no obvious successor to Roy Hodgson.
Following a humiliating exit from Euro 2016 at the hands of tournament minnows Iceland last week, Hodgson resigned from his post and the FA is now searching for the 68-year-old's replacement.
Frenchman Arsene Wenger, Dutchman Guus Hiddink and German Jurgen Klinsmann are among a host of domestic and international coaches who have been linked to the post, with United States boss Klinsmann the current bookmakers' frontrunner.
Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello remain the only two foreign bosses to have ever managed the Three Lions but, with under-21 coach Gareth Southgate reportedly ruling himself out of contention, the Englishmen deemed qualified enough to lead the team into the qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup keeps diminishing.
"It has proved to be a very difficult job for many people but I don't think it would put anyone off coming to do the job, we are a high-profile nation,'' Hurst told Press Association Sport.
"I have changed my mind on whether it should be an English manager or a foreign coach.
"I felt years ago we should get the best man worldwide, having seen one or two of the foreign coaches they haven't improved on what we have done and I have changed my mind.
"We should be looking at definitely appointing an English manager. I have got to stick with my view -- for me it has got to be an Englishman now.''
Hurst, who scored a hat trick in the 1966 World Cup final win over West Germany at Wembley -- England's only major tournament success, admits a lack of native bosses in the top flight means the selection pool for the post is small.
Despite that, the 74-year-old wants to see the FA appoint an Englishman and has thrown his support behind Hoddle to have a second spell in charge following his initial tenure between 1996-99.
"We are at a limited choice,'' Hurst conceded. "At my time you generally selected the England manager from the outstanding manager in the First Division -- Alf Ramsey won the league when he got the job, Don Revie was very successful at Leeds.
"But nowadays all the top clubs are managed by foreign managers and that rules a lot of them out.
There are some candidates who spring to my mind who have been around, Sam Allardyce for example.
"He is enormously experienced and it would be interesting to see what he would do but if I had to select a candidate I think it would be Glenn Hoddle, who has said he would talk to the FA.
"When Ron Greenwood got the job in 1977 for five years, he cleverly appointed Bobby Robson to be the manager of the B team and Terry Venables to manage the under-23 side.
"Fast-forward many years, Bobby nearly won the World Cup in '90 and Venables nearly won the Euros in '96 -- maybe we should be looking at that kind of progression again if it proves to be successful.
"Had we won those tournaments Ron Greenwood would have been called upon as a genius for setting the organisation in place many years before.''
The talk of a detailed review into the continued failings of England to reproduce their World Cup success of 50 years ago has already begun.
But Hurst believes there will be little change to the squad of players selected by the next incumbent given the youthful nature of the current crop -- and has backed skipper Wayne Rooney to continue to lead the team.
"Prior to the tournament I thought we had the best bunch of young players we have had for some time, and I still feel that, we have got some good, young players without question,'' he said.
"It is no so much the winning and losing, teams win and lose, it is the manner of performance and of course that performance was extremely disappointing.
"I think it is premature to look at Wayne Rooney as finished -- he still has a lot to offer the squad and the team and the captaincy.
"I think we are lucky that we don't have too many older players, in terms of a complete change of personnel it is out of the question. We have a lot of good, young players.''