Phil Neville’s first major test as manager has been given the thumbs-up by most pundits.
England came away from the SheBelieves Cup having just failed to lift the trophy but impressed many with their performances in the USA.
Given the quality of some of England’s attacking play and the goals they scored against France in their opening game, a former defender such as Neville will have been fuming with both goals conceded against Germany and the own goal that handed the hosts the tournament spoils in their final match.
The spike in media interest prompted by Neville’s appointment was maintained through the tournament, helped of course by a sprinkling of stardust from David Beckham, but the new manager’s higher profile and the fact that the FA have so clearly made him their man should also lead to the squad being giving greater backing from the governing body.
Whereas Mark Sampson, perhaps, wasn’t in the position to demand more, stories have already appeared in the wake of the trip to the USA about Neville wanting parity with the men’s squad in terms of flying in business class.
The new manager confirmed: "We were made to travel through three or four different cities just to get here and I had one training session with the team before the first game, after a nine-hour flight."
The next immediate challenge is the World Cup qualifier against Wales at St Mary’s on 6 April. A win will take England to the top of their qualifying group and firmly on the road to France 2019 but may not teach the manager as much about his team as he has learned over the past two weeks.
He will hope that the ongoing changes to the women’s game, with a fully professional Super League top division in place from September, may widen the potential pool of players from which he has to choose and, as Neville himself has said, with the FA having control of the top league in the country it shouldn’t be too difficult for the England manager and the WSL to work together to produce a schedule that benefits the national team
The Manchester City and Chelsea members of his squad, meanwhile, remain in contention to lift the Champions League trophy this season and gain more, valuable big-game experience.