Football Association chairman David Bernstein has revealed that the governing body are narrowing down their search for the new England manager and that an announcement could be made before the end of the season.
General secretary Alex Horne recently stated that the new Three Lions boss would be announced once the season was over.
While Bernstein believes that this decision is unlikely to change, the 68-year-old has admitted that the FA are willing to appoint a permanent coach sooner if the "key" candidate comes into the fray.
"Rushing this process is not going to be good for arriving at the right conclusion," said Bernstein. "We are treating clubs and managers with the greatest of respect. Most of the people we are looking at are in positions, and whatever we do we ought to try to do it in a way which enables clubs to finish their season with the minimum of disruption.
"We have now arrived at a number of target names. We intend to deal with this at the back end of the season but if certain things fell into place and the key appointment came, it could be earlier.
"Our next step is to narrow that target list down to a very small number of key people who, of course, we believe actually want the position. There may be people who don't actually want this position and we want to eliminate those who don't want it."
Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp remains the clear favourite to nab the full-time role.
