• Neville’s role would not be entirely welcome in women’s football • Former England full-back would join squad at Spain training camp

Phil Neville’s controversial appointment as the new coach of the England women’s football team is close to being confirmed.

An announcement could come as early as Tuesday and enable the former Manchester United, Everton and England full-back to meet his new players at their winter training camp in southern Spain.

News of Neville’s imminent installation has not been overly well received among the women’s football community. There are concerns about both the 40-year-old’s total lack of experience in the women’s game and the fact he has never managed a men’s first team.

Neville, who lives in Valencia, does hold the pro licence qualification and has previously served as a coach under David Moyes at Manchester United, his brother, Gary Neville, at Valencia and with the men’s England Under-21 team.

The Football Association had hoped to identify a successor to Mark Sampson – sacked in September for “inappropriate behaviour” with a player in a previous job – last month but some contenders were put off by potential “scrutiny” of their lives and then the short-listed candidates all dropped out of the running.

Phil Neville emerges as frontrunner for England Women’s manager job Read more

While many people’s favourite, John Herdman, moved from coaching Canada women to the men’s team, Nick Cushing stayed put at Manchester City and Laura Harvey accepted a new job with Utah Royals in the United States. Mo Marley, the popular, pro licence-holding caretaker coach, applied but seems to have been overlooked, leaving the way clear for the FA to approach Neville, shortly after Martin Glenn, the FA’s chief executive, said: “We are assessing all of the talent across the world.”

Neville’s first task will be to win support among a squad bruised by Sampson’s departure. The Welshman was found to have made two racially discriminatory comments to Eniola Aluko and Drew Spence but the majority of the England players remained extremely supportive of him.

Under Sampson England, ranked No 1 in Europe and No 3 in the world, reached the semi‑finals at the 2015 World Cup and the 2017 European Championship. Neville’s challenge is to win the 2019 World Cup in France.