Sir Trevor Brooking is confident Fabio Capello will see out his contract as England manager even if Rafael Benitez is sacked by Inter Milan.
Benitez was on Tuesday night still in a job despite being openly critical of Inter president Massimo Moratti in the wake of his side's triumph at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
Yet it appears only a matter of time before the former Liverpool coach is ousted as boss of last season's Italian Treble winners, even though he only replaced Jose Mourinho last summer.
Former Roma coach Luciano Spalletti and Leonardo, who left AC Milan at the end of last season, are thought to be high on Moratti's hit-list of potential replacements.
However, Capello is sure to come into his thoughts as well given his impressive record at club level.
It has been suggested the Football Association would not be too distraught at the thought given it would save them the estimated £6million annual salary it presently costs to keep Capello in charge of the Three Lions.
The counter argument from FA HQ inside Wembley Stadium is that at a time of great upheaval finding a replacement for Capello is not high on the agenda.
England are still well placed to reach Euro 2012 despite being held to a home draw by Montenegro in their last qualifier in October and Brooking is happy to leave Capello to his work.
"If you are in this role, you get speculation about that all the time," he said.
"I don't know if anything has officially happened as far as Benitez is concerned but from our point of view, Fabio is contracted here until 2012.
"He is doing our qualifying campaign and hopefully we will have a chance to try and have a good tournament in 2012.
"Until we know otherwise, that is how we will go on."
Enthusiasm for Capello among the wider public waned significantly when England so spectacularly failed to match heady pre-tournament expectations in South Africa.
It seemed certain Capello would lose his job in the hand-wringing that followed, only for the FA to stand by the 64-year-old, who had done so well in qualifying.
However, there is now little appetite for another foreign appointment, so the chances are Capello will ultimately be replaced by an Englishman, or at the very least an adopted one, such as Martin O'Neill.
Harry Redknapp - who has been so successful with Tottenham in the Champions League this term - and Sam Allardyce - sacked as Blackburn manager eight days ago in mystifying circumstances - are obvious contenders, as is current Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce.
"We always said we would like to get towards having an English manager of the England team," said Brooking.
"Longer term, it sends out the right message.
"But no-one knows who the next England coach will be. When the vacancy comes up, who will be locked into contracts? How much will it cost to get them out? There are a whole range of issues."
When Steve McClaren was dumped in the abysmal failure to reach Euro 2008, it was accepted England did not have the quality required to restore pride to the Three Lions.
The view was not one Brooking endorsed. And, more than ever, he is convinced there are enough quality English coaches not to widen the scope any further.
"There are some really talented coaches," he observed.
"There was a frustration in the past because the bigger clubs tended to go overseas. They bought a lot of overseas talent and thought an overseas coach would communicate better.
"That is wrong because it is almost like saying English coaches do not know the best overseas talent.
"Others said you had to be a former international or you had to have coached in the Champions League.
"English coaches were not getting the chance to prove whether they could do it or not.
"We had the experience with Steve. At some stage we want to go with it again."
