Former England and Arsenal forward, Rachel Yankey, thinks the sacking of Mark Sampson won’t affect the players, and Mo Marley will get the best out of them.

Sampson was sacked after evidence of inappropriate behaviour in his previous role at Bristol Academy emerged, according to Sky Sports. Now Mo Marley is in charge, although currently that’s only on an interim basis, pending the outcome of her matches with the Lionesses, and the FA’s success finding a capable candidate for the role permanently.

Rachel Yankey thinks the team shouldn’t have a problem dealing with the changing situation, telling Sky Sports: “I don’t really pass too many comments on it and I just know that it won’t affect the England players because they play for the shirt.

“It’s about the team now. The team pushing on and making sure that they qualify for the World Cup and really off-the-pitch-stuff needs to be dealt with by the proper people that are obviously going to go through the investigations.

“I think [Marley is] someone that the players will feel comfortable and confident with. She’s a very good communicator and I’m sure she’ll get the best out of the players.”

In football in general, changing your manager tends to have some sort of impact on the performance of the team on the pitch. Sometimes teams play with the freedom of knowing they have a fresh start, sometimes they struggle to figure out exactly how the new coach wants them to play.

Hopefully for the England women it’ll be more of the former, with a couple of World Cup qualifiers coming up in November.

If the Lionesses play anything like they did in the 6-0 win against Russia in the first qualifier of the campaign, it shouldn’t really matter either way.

The Arsenal women were particularly on form that day, with both Jodie Taylor and Jordan Nobbs getting on the score-sheet in the first half.

Hopefully Rachel Yankey’s right and they can keep that going.