Jose still the special one for Barwick

By MATT LAWTON

Last updated at 08:41 10 December 2007

It was always going to be a challenging task to lure Jose Mourinho back to England to replace Steve McClaren, but the FA are not giving up just yet.

The smoke and mirrors from the Mourinho camp suggests that he will still prove an awkard capture for FA chief executive Brian Barwick, despite the vast sums of money on offer.

The FA, however, want to hear it from Mourinho before withdrawing their efforts to focus on other candidates, including the former Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello.

Barwick wants a coach in place by Christmas and a gobetween has been relaying messages to Mourinho and his agent Jorge Mendes. The responses, at first encouraging, appear to have cooled in the last 48 hours.

Asked about the prospects of him taking the job last week, Mourinho said: "Why not?", but he rejected a planned Christmas shopping trip to London in order not to fuel rumours of a secret meeting with Barwick.