The cover up feels much worse than the crime. If the FA would have come out and fined Sampson for an inappropriate joke, joking about something that killed thousands and thousands is never appropriate, but said it didn't rise to the level of racism, I don't think this would have blown up. They tried to cover it up, and there is a huge mess on their hands.
You don't think that had a White players parents been in Africa during the Ebola outbreak or Asia during the SARS outbreak someone might have made a joke about them bringing it back? No need to assume he meant anything racial by it. Maybe. Why not?
I want to be clear here, I am not standing up for Sampson. I think he made an offensive, idiotic statement, and should face the ramifications for that, and on top of that, appears that he participated in a cover up/sweep-under-the-rug job, that makes everything worse. However, not every inappropriate comment made to someone of a different race is a racist comment.
Sampson forced out. Just shows the FA are more interested in media image than winning anything. He got the team to 2 straight semi finals after the team were previously an amateurish joke. Expect some PC appointment who will flop.
He's benefitted from having by far and away the best and deepest pool of talent available to an England manager ever tbf. Not going to take undue credit away from him but it's a similar point to that made over the summer of youth success; it's the clubs who've done the hard work in developing the talent, the coaches just have to try their best not to ******** it all up.
This was the inevitable conclusion. There was too much momentum moving against his job for him realistically keep it. The FA will hope "out of sight, out of mind," but this won't go away that easily.
It would be interesting to see how serious this new Bristol Academy stuff is. It feels this situation was at the stage where any sort of new, negative information could have been used as a convenient reason for the FA to get rid of him no matter how minor.
Am I understanding this right? Sampson's been sacked because of the contents of a report than Martin Glenn has had since 2014 or 2015 but claims he only got around to reading last week?
I think he's been unfairly treated from all of this, however I hope our new manager is more adventurous. Hopefully he/she is a proper manager and not just some PC idiot who is a yes man/woman who cares more about quantity over quality.
Phil Neville appointed as new manager ! a man who knows nothing about womens football and is a complete clown . lol
Can't believe they actually went ahead and did this. I feel a bit sad for him because it's almost like he's being setup to fail. Hopefully he lets them play instead of trying to grind out results.
Still with all those women around, he'll always have someone who can make a cup of coffee when he fancies one.
Liverpool signed Rinsola Babajide from Watford, now that she's in the WSL and getting more exposure, I don't think it'll be long before she gets a senior call-up. She's very good.
For anyone interested, Martin Samuel has written about the appointment of Neville: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...ille-says-job-stepping-stone-thats-issue.html
Neville apologises for his 2012 sexist comments .LOL No doubt Glenn told him to apologise. All that matters is media image to the ex biscuit salesman .
We clobbered France 4-1 in the first match of the SheBelieves Cup. We scored three goals in the first and the last one in the first couple minutes in the second. I must say Neville did a fine job tactically and we were aggressive for most of the match unlike how Sampson would've set up shop against a side like France. Especially if we scored first. Kirby as a No. 10 has to be one of the better players in the world at her position. She looked pretty decent. Well done Phil and the ladies!
If Neville's prepared to be even a little more expansive than Sampson was, he'll have plenty of success. The depth and quality of talent available to him is absurd, just look at the players not in last night's squad, let alone the bench itself. There's never been such riches in the women's game in England, and Sampson managed to do fairly well without ever really letting them realise their attacking potential.
Live a couple hours away, would have liked to go, but I knew, Ohio in March was not a smart call. New Jersey isn't going to be either.
Keira Walsh is the type of player England has been missing. If she can take over from Fara Williams’ in this deeper role permanently then England might be a threat. A midfield diamond of Walsh, Nobbs, box-to-box midfielder and Kirby would be the way I would take things forward.