Kevin Keegan has been told that there will be no pressure put on him by his Football Association bosses or technical director Howard Wilkinson to make any changes to his backroom staff.

Wilkinson will continue to offer any technical help Keegan needs, although he made it clear that he will not be playing any greater role than before within the senior England squad.

And FA chief executive Adam Crozier has reaffirmed that Keegan remains the ultimate decision-maker on player selection and tactics, as well as who should be the members of his coaching and backroom team.

The comments from Wilkinson and Crozier follow FA chairman Geoff Thompson's publicly-expressed encouragement for Keegan to take advantage of all the technical and tactical help he needs from Wilkinson and the coaching staff.

Thompson, who was firm in his support of Keegan's position, stated that ''Kevin may need a little bit of help in that department and he would accept that himself''.

While he did not advocate Wilkinson playing a more hands-on role or a new number two being brought in, he added that ''we have got a very good technical director, a lot of good coaches and have got to encourage the integration of that into the full international set-up''.

Crozier last night moved to insist that any ensuing reports which suggested that this provided proof of a rift between Keegan and Wilkinson, or intimated that the technical director was effectively increasing his power-base, ''could not be more wrong''.

Crozier declared: ''Any changes to Kevin Keegan's back-up team are ultimately his responsibility and his alone.

''Of course, the lessons of the European Championships can and must be learned. But the relationship between Kevin Keegan and Howard Wilkinson will not change.

''Crucially, Kevin has had, and will continue to have, full responsibility for selecting the England team, its tactics and its performance on the pitch.

''Everybody at Lancaster Gate already has the job of helping Kevin, not least the members of Howard Wilkinson's technical department.

''We are all 100per cent behind Kevin because he is the best person for the job. His ability, charisma and inspiration command the support of us all.

''Despite this week's disappointment, none of us have any intention of being diverted from the objective we share with the whole country of developing a successful team.''

Wilkinson, whose has overall responsibility at the FA for overseeing technical development from the youth teams upwards, running the under-21 side and providing assistance to Keegan, meanwhile made his own position clear.

''Reports of my increased involvement are totally alien to what was said and to what the real situation is,'' he told said.

He will nevertheless continue to work alongside Keegan, while one of the England coach's back-up team at the tournament Les Reed is, after all, head of technical development under Wilkinson.

It therefore seems to be a question, in Thompson's view at least, of Wilkinson providing extra assistance to Keegan without actually taking over or muscling in.

For the FA technical director is currently compiling a report on the European Championships, with special relevance to England but also looking at the other 15 competing countries, which he will surely be encouraged to discuss with Keegan.

Wilkinson was meanwhile keen to stress even before the tournament began that, having ''discussed at length the selection of the under-21 squad and his squad'' with Keegan, he would not be treading on his toes.

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