Felgate in and McEnroe out

John McEnroe wishes David Felgate well as the Lawn Tennis Association's new director of performance, to be announced this morning. But the American former Wimbledon champion and world No 1 wonders if the appointment is an example of "recycling people."

Felgate, whose candidacy was strongly supported by Tim Henman, the British No 1, whom he coached for eight and a half years, succeeds Patrice Hagelauer, who resigned to coach the French Davis Cup team.

McEnroe was among those interviewed by John Crowther, the LTA's chief executive, but said he was not in a position to take the job on a full-time basis. McEnroe's initial reaction yesterday to Felgate's impending appointment was accompanied by a gentle laugh. "Oh, really?" he said. "Can David Felgate get kids pumped up to play? I guess that's what the Lawn Tennis Association thinks he can do."

Speaking from New York, where he was inducted as the 41st member of the Laureus Academy, a group of sporting greats who promote the use of sport to improve living conditions, McEnroe was asked if he thought Felgate's appointment was a good one or a bad one.

He said: "Having just heard it, there's obviously no way I could say right now. But what I see in general, not only in sport, is a recycling of people that are already out there and around, instead of a more bold choice. This seems to be a choice that was within the ranks. It may work out, I don't know. David obviously did a good job with Tim, and he's a pleasant guy, and he had some success with [Xavier] Malisse for a while, and he's been around the game for a long time, and he loves the game. Those things count, too."

Asked about his own interest in the job, McEnroe said: "I did have a couple of conversations with John [Crowther], but the speed with which it had to take place at their end made me unavailable as a candidate. I felt that in the longer term, a couple of years down the round, when my three oldest kids had gone off to college, there was talk of my wife and myself spending some time over that way.

"I did say I was interested in working on a more limited basis, because I think I can inspire kids even for X-amount of time, whether it's four, eight, 10 weeks in the year, if they were interested in accepting me along those lines. And apparently they're not.

"So it leads me to believe that as far as I'm concerned I'm not involved in any way. It's disappointing, because I had visions of perhaps of being involved in some way early on, perhaps in a larger way later. It's not as if I should make the decision, but I wanted to be made aware of things before they took place. And I'm hearing about it from you [press] guys. That doesn't seem to me like a good communication base."