With the situation regarding the availability of new England manager Sven Goran Eriksson remaining unclear, LeagueManagers.com asked Peter where he stood in respect to the forthcoming friendly with Spain and also with regard to the future with the FA and England.

He explained first of all how he had become involved with the national team after the sudden resignation of the previous manager Kevin Keegan before outlining his thoughts for his future input.

“When Kevin Keegan left England after the Germany game and all of a sudden my name was being mentioned as the next manager, we, at Leicester, very quickly cleared that up by announcing that I'm not ready for it yet - although it was nice to be linked. After that of course, I was approached to work as a coach with Bobby Robson but in the end Newcastle didn't release him so I was offered the caretaker role for the game against Italy. I think the FA were always hopeful of having a permanent manager in place after that. Since then of course, Mr Eriksson has been appointed and they have now asked me, as they did before when it was going to be with Robson, to be involved as a coach for the near future. Which, for me, was great, because it meant that I could go in there and work with an experienced fellow and hopefully learn even more. We're now in discussion about the situation for the next game and I will be meeting Mr. Eriksson for the first time on Tuesday. I think he was quite happy with what he saw in the last game – that I was willing to give some younger players a chance - and I think he feels that with the four or five players who dropped out it would have been a strong side. If I am in charge for the Spain friendly then I would like to go with the same approach as I did for the Italian game but I would obviously be keeping one eye on the following month, which is a qualifying game against Finland. If it means then that we might need a bit more experience in there because of that game, then that would be something that I would have to think about.”

The situation for the Spain friendly, which takes place at Villa Park on February 28, is likely to be resolved later this week, as FA spokesman Adrian Bevington explained:

"There are ongoing talks with both Peter Taylor and Steve McClaren and we will also be speaking with Sven and Tord (Grip). We hope to clarify the position with regards to England's friendly soon."