England women: Phil Neville on verge of manager role

Phil Neville spent the 2015-16 season as a coach at Valencia

Phil Neville is on the verge of being appointed the manager of the England women's football team, BBC Sport understands.

The 40-year-old has previously coached at former club Manchester United, as well as Valencia and England Under-21s.

Mo Marley has been in temporary charge of England since Mark Sampson was sacked in September following evidence of "inappropriate behaviour" in a previous role.

England are ranked third in the world.

Their next major tournament is the 2019 World Cup in France.

The Football Association had planned to appoint a new head coach by the end of 2017 but several potential appointments dropped out of the running.

Emma Hayes said she wanted to remain as Chelsea boss while former Arsenal coach Laura Harvey and Canada manager John Herdman moved to new roles.

Under Sampson, England reached the Euro 2017 semi-finals, eventually losing to winners the Netherlands, and they also finished third at the 2015 World Cup - their best finish at the tournament.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn said: "We absolutely want to get the right person. We have got great ambitions for the women's team.

"We believe we can win the World Cup so we have to get the right person with the right set of skills.

"We are lucky we have had a great interim in Mo Marley, so that has allowed us to spend that bit more time to make sure we are assessing all of the talent across the world."