Phil Neville is expected to be named England Women’s new manager this week after the dismissal of Mark Sampson back in September.
Neville has no experience in women’s football, but is set to be announced as England’s new manager later this week.
The potential decision has been met with confusion by the Women’s football community seeing as the ex-Manchester United defender hasn’t even been in charge of a Men’s first-team before.
He’s only ever been a coach at his former club and helped out his brother, Gary, as an assistant at Valencia for a bit. It also appears the 40-year-old didn’t even apply for the position.
Caretaker manager Mo Markley, on the other hand, did apply and has been overlooked by the FA.
Other candidates included John Herdman, who moved from coaching Canada Women to the men’s team and Nick Cushing, who decided to stay at Manchester City. Laura Harvey was favourite for a while but she accepted a new job with US side, Utah Royals.
Arsenal legend Kelly Smith was one of the people involved in women’s football who really thought the Lionesses should have a female manager. Now, it appears not only have they got a male manager, they’ve been given a massively inexperienced one.
While most would have preferred a female manager, a male manager isn’t a disaster if they’re the right person for the job. However, Neville isn’t that person. It’s a risk and one the English FA are obviously willing to take with the Women’s national side.
When you Google ‘Phil Neville women’s football’, there are 82 hits since Friday. All of which are about the England job.