Watford Ladies coach Keith Boanas claims the rumours of Mark Sampson’s inappropriate relationships with “common knowledge”.

Boanas said this to the Guardian about the allegations. “They were common knowledge. It reverberated around the game and I was told of specific things on numerous occasions.

“If they weren’t substantiated rumours, then they may have gone: ‘OK we’re going to go with you’ but to come out now and say: ‘It’s only just come to light’ is hard to believe.”

Mark Sampson was in charge of Bristol Academy for four years until he took over the England job, which he lasted in for the same amount of time.

Earlier this year, Eni Aluko and Drew Spence made allegations of bullying and racism against Sampson. Two investigations into the allegations cleared Sampson of any wrongdoing.

Then the Guardian claimed that new text messages emerged as new evidence in an inquiry into those two investigations.

Before the results of that inquiry could come to light, Sampson was sacked as a result of having “overstepped the professional boundaries between player and coach”.

From the outside looking in, the whole situation seems very messy for the FA, in my opinion. In 2017, you’d hope we’d be at the point where the most important stories about footballers would be about football.

Instead we have reported allegations about inappropriate relationships with players. Now the FA has the job of hiring the next permanent manager to take over England Women, with Mo Marley expected to be an interim appointment for the time being.