The English Football Association will wait until the new year before announcing a permanent replacement for Mark Sampson.

After Sampson was sacked for inappropriate behaviour towards a Bristol Academy player, an incident years previous to his appointment as England head coach, the FA are struggling to find somebody to fill his shoes, reports BBC Sport.

The Lionesses have enjoyed a great period of success under Sampson, finishing in third place at the 2015 World Cup in Canada, and reaching the semi-finals of the 2017 European Championships in the Netherlands.

Former u19’s manager Mo Marley is currently interim in the England job, and an FA spokesperson has revealed interviews have been ongoing since the start of December.

“With the team now ranked third in the world, and with the aim of getting to first in the world, it is important that the right appointment is made.

“We have plenty of time before England’s next Fifa Women’s World Cup qualifier in April 2018. We will provide further updates as and when appropriate.”

The FA will be desperate to get this appointment right, having embarrassingly being forced to sack the manager from the women and men’s team due to unrelated incidents.

For the Lionesses, many speculated if the head coach role should go to a woman, but with how many managers are pulling out of the running, the FA might have to settle on the best candidate who wants the job.

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes and Manchester City’s Nick Cushing have been linked, but both have withdrawn any interest.

The FA perhaps didn’t anticipate so much difficulty in finding a new head coach for the England Women’s team, but the next manager should be revealed in the coming months.