Wanderers legend John McGinlay reckons England should put Spurs boss Harry Redknapp out of his misery and offer the vacant manager’s job to Jose Mourniho.

After seeing his side lose their last three league games, Redknapp heads into Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final with Wanderers desperate to prove that consistent talk of him succeeding Fabio Capello has not been a distraction to him and his Champions League-chasing side.

But McGinlay believes the FA should publicly end their courtship with Redknapp, and look towards Real Madrid boss Mourino instead.

“If the FA are not going to go with Redknapp, which increasingly looks to be the case, there seems to be only one outstanding option and that’s Mourinho,” he said in his weekly column in The Bolton News.

“He’s the only big name they could appoint that would make the dressing room sit up and take notice. He would have the right kind of character to go in there and put a few things right.

“You’d maybe wait for the end of the La Liga season and leave Stuart Pearce in charge – which seems to be what they are looking at with Redknapp anyway – maybe even until after the Euros.”

McGinlay says Wanderers have “nothing to lose” heading to White Hart Lane to face a side who have slipped from title contenders to one holding on to third spot in the Premier League table by their fingernails in recent weeks.

“At one point it seemed Harry was just waiting for a phone call but now everyone seems to be distancing themselves from the whole thing,” he said.

“Tottenham were looking like they would be in with a shout for the title but I think a few of the players have allowed themselves to be rattled by all this England talk. We can use that to our advantage.

“Now you hear from Fergie that all the managers have been sent a letter - it has developed into a farcical situation.”