Mark Sampson has refused to confirm that he will stay in charge of England women after their exit from the European Championship last night. His side were tipped to lift the trophy in the Netherlands, especially after Germany and France were knocked out, but England were beaten 3-0 by the hosts.
England went into the semi-final as the tournament top scorers with 11 goals but struggled to create anything up front. Holland cleared off the line twice and Jodie Taylor was denied by Sari van Veenendaal, her Arsenal team-mate.
The match, broadcast last night on Channel 4, was watched by a peak of four million people, with viewing figures averaging 3.4 million — a new record for women’s football.
“I’ll go away and reflect on what I’ve done in the last 12 months to support the players and try and find some solutions to support them even betterMark Sampson
Sampson has two years left on his contract until the World Cup finals in France. He has asked for time to reflect and look at what he could have done better. He declined to confirm that he would be manager when England start their qualifying campaign against Russia at Prenton Park next month.
“The last 12 months for a coach in a major championship year is incredibly difficult,” Sampson said. “You’ve got to make a hell of a lot of sacrifices, like the players. This year has been the most special of my life, my young daughter’s been born and her mum has given up so much of her time, hasn’t gone back to work yet to make sure dad could give his all to the team.
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“The first thing I want to do is go back home and spend some time with family, because I’ve missed them and I hope they’ve missed me. I want to go home and tell them how much I love them and how proud I am of what they’ve done over the last year to help me have one of the most special years of my life both professionally and personally.
“I’ll go away and reflect on what I’ve done in the last 12 months to support the players and try and find some solutions to support them even better, because they deserve that.”
Sampson led England to an unexpected bronze medal at the World Cup finals in Canada two years ago. Here his side arguably fell below expectation. The feeling has been that he wants to move into the men’s game and has been tipped to become England Under-21 manager in future. It has also been suggested that he could be interested in a lower-league club job.
“It’s hard to say at the moment, tough to take it tonight, so personally I’ll go away like I said to reflect on what I could have done to support this team and learn some lessons and hopefully come out the other side as a better coach,” he said. “We’re always trying to learn.”
