The already skimpy list of candidates to succeed Kevin Keegan was pruned by five yesterday when Aime Jacquet, Peter Taylor, Peter Reid, Bryan Robson and Bobby Robson were ruled out of contention for the England job.

Arsenal's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, meanwhile, invited the English Football Association (FA) to approach Arsene Wenger, but said: "I can tell them he wouldn't say `yes' to the job".

The bookmakers immediately slashed the odds of their favourite, Terry Venables, to 2 to 1, even though the former England coach has several detractors at the FA. Jacquet, who won the 1998 World Cup with France, is now the national technical director for the French Football Federation. But he said: "I have no intention to return to the playing field in high-level soccer in England, or elsewhere."

Bryan Robson, the Middlesbrough manager, said: "My name is not in the hat. If I get offered or would like the job of England manager I want to have good experience behind me as a league manager and, hopefully, success."

Taylor, a former England Under-21 coach, also declined. "It is not for me at the moment. One day I would love to manage England, but I would have to have earned it. I have only been at Leicester four months and this is too early for me."

Sunderland's chairman Bob Murray said of Reid: "Peter is an established and respected Premiership manager and only wants to continue to devote his future to Sunderland."

Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, similarly insisted that Bobby Robson was staying. "We could not contemplate his release, neither in the short nor long term."

Aston Villa's John Gregory has not really done enough to warrant consideration, and the same goes for David O'Leary at Leeds, while Martin O'Neill has only just moved to his beloved Celtic. Meanwhile, Alex Ferguson has pledged himself to Manchester Untied for another full season before retiring.

The leading foreign candidate is the Roma coach Fabio Capello, who turned Milan into a major power in the 1990s and is also the choice of the FA technical director, Howard Wilkinson. Another Italian being touted is the former Internazionale coach Marcello Lippi, but he does not speak English.

More plausible is the Rangers manager, Dick Advocaat. He lifted the Dutch title with PSV, has won five trophies at Ibrox, has managed Holland and has only a year left on his current contract.

On more immediate maters, Martin Keown will lead England in their qualifier against Finland in Helsinki tomorrow. The Arsenal defender takes over from Tony Adams, who has suffered a recurrence of his recent back problem.

Caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson acknowledged there were likely to be a number of club captains - probably including Dennis Wise and Gareth Southgate - in his team, while David Seaman has previously skippered the national side.

But he still turned to Keown to offer him his first chance of captaining England and said: "Martin has established himself in everyone's eyes as a regular in the team.

"Over the last 20 or so games he has been the most frequent member of the team and I feel his qualities are similar to those of a player like Stuart Pearce."

Wilkinson also revealed that Manchester United defender Wes Brown was being promoted to the senior squad.