MARK SAMPSON HAS been appointed caretaker manager of Stevenage, the struggling English League Two club announced on Monday, giving the Welshman a chance to resurrect his career after being sacked as England’s women’s coach following a controversial spell in charge.
“Mark Sampson will assume control of the team in a caretaker role, assisted by newly appointed U18 manager Alex Revell, until further notice,” Stevenage said in a statement.
Sampson replaces Tunisian Dino Maamria, who was sacked with the fourth-tier club sitting second from bottom with just three points having failed to win in seven league games.
The 36-year-old has been on Stevenage’s staff since the summer in what was his first job in football since being fired by the Football Association in 2017 for “inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour” in his previous role as manager at Bristol Academy.
Sampson enjoyed success on the pitch with the England women’s team — guiding England to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup and the 2017 European Championships — but off it he was dogged by controversy.
Former England star Eni Aluko accused him of racism, harassment and bullying while Drew Spence claimed he had made disparaging remarks to her about whether she had been arrested before.
He was cleared over those allegations, but instead was dismissed by the FA following a historic safeguarding investigation into his conduct in 2014 while manager of Bristol Academy.
The FA later agreed a confidential financial settlement with Sampson — who was believed to be on £100,000 a year — after he brought a case for unfair dismissal with his contract supposed to run until 2019.
BBC – Thierry Henry, Fabregas and Alan Shearer -an absolute snooze fest
@Ronan O Connor: Fr. Stone had also been lined up for the knockout stages!
@T Dawg: Fr Stone. Blast from the past. Lol.
Can’t wait for Roy Keane to sow it into England after they go out in the quarter finals
@Eoin Fitzgerald: i preferred it the first 5 times he did it. His rants can be funny but he’s poor pundit in my opinion, Little tactical insight, overly negative and its obvious he doesn’t do much research. On the flipside Neville’s forensic analysis of everything to the enth degree can get a bit old too. There’s a great interview with Brian Clough about pundits from the 80′s and robbing people of their ability to form their own insights and opinions about the game. I’m beginning to agree with him more and more as time goes on. Most of them are at best boring, at worst infuriating, and very few justify not going out to make the tae at half time.
@Fred spins kdb: I get the impression that there is no such thing a good pundit for you. If they’re analytic that’s not good. If they speak their mind, that’s not good either. I must say I like roy Keane as a pundit. I actually enjoy listening to what he has to say. Speaks the truth whether people like it or not.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: maybe you are right. I think Carragher is good.Neville is way too preachy and believing of his own hype these days for me. I get the sense he believes he is the man who single handedly took down to the super league, as if working for sky sports is no way connected to gouging money from the everyday football fan. I think Roy can be a good listen to at times, but he doesn’t have much to offer in terms of genuine insight, he kind of lost me with his ‘everyone who can trap the ball is an international these days’. Tearing the back off players becomes kind of less edgy and more boring and predictable if you are doing it all time.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: think Brian Kerr is good aswell. Unreal knowledge and engaging speaker.
I’m guessing RTE still has all the euro games yeah?? Even though we didn’t qualify
@Aidan: Yeah they do with Richie Sadlier, Kevin Doyle and Damien Duff.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: what a bore ! ITV for me
@Gary O: RTE panel hasn’t been the same since Liam, Johnny and Dunphy left (Didi too, hopefully he can back after pandemic)
@Eoin Fitzgerald: agreed 100%