There is no doubt Neville’s candidacy came as a shock, and the intrigue about how his name emerged is fuelled by a tale about how a well-known broadcaster suggested him to FA chiefs as a joke remark at a Christmas party.
That aside, questions remain about how the recruitment process worked and the part played by FA technical director Dan Ashworth, who has been removed from dealing with “non-technical” issues with the women’s team.
That followed his part in the Eni Aluko affair and his failure to check the safeguarding report on Sampson’s background when the Welshman was hired.
Ashworth was involved in the recruitment again this time – so how did he and Baroness Campbell, the FA director of women’s football, go about matching Neville to the role? Did he even apply for it?
One thing is for sure: Neville’s route to the job was cleared once other, arguably more qualified, candidates had dropped out.
Managers of the two leading Women’s Super League clubs – Chelsea’s Emma Hayes and Manchester City’s Nick Cushing – both decided to stay with their clubs.
Other contenders, such as former Arsenal manager Laura Harvey and British-born Canada coach John Herdman, got new jobs.
The FA said interim manager Mo Marley “did not wish to be considered for the role”, while former Watford and Estonia boss Keith Boanas did not apply after previous applications were rejected.
The reasons for so many drop-outs included concerns about facing the sort of media scrutiny that Sampson encountered, and the FA’s procrastinations over those it interviewed – understood to be Cushing, Harvey and Herdman.
Hayes argues that leading England “is not the glamour job it once was” because top clubs can pay managers similar salaries and offer more frequent coaching.
“At clubs, the competition is high, you have weekly matches and for some of us younger managers, the thought of playing quite irrelevant qualifying games, no disrespect, is not necessarily the greatest challenge,” she says.