Mark Sampson was hopeful yesterday that the new Women’s Super League winter schedule will help improve English players.

The Football Association announced last week that, from 2017 onwards, the WSL will fall in line with the rest of the women’s football pyramid across Europe by running their season from September to May.

Currently in its sixth season, the WSL now has seven full-time clubs and two leagues but with problems surrounding fixture scheduling and the availability of stadiums, a decision was made to shift from a summer season.

There will also be a winter break between mid-December and mid-January, something the men’s game has been calling for for well over a decade, while the move will now see the Women’s FA Cup final, still at Wembley, take place at the end of the domestic campaign.

Sampson, who led England to third place at the 2015 World Cup, said last week the changes should be of benefit to his squad.

And the boss also believes having a more settled calendar across the course of a season can only help the national team develop and give them the chance to oust foreign players from their respective WSL sides.

“The foreign player debate is a big debate,” Sampson admitted.

“But what it fundamentally comes down to is our young players being good enough to get selected ahead of foreign players.

“I have not met a WSL coach who has said if there was an English player better than a foreign player they wouldn’t pick the English player.”

Sampson does want to see more talent come to the WSL but is wary that saturating the league with average players from overseas, a big problem in the Premier League, could see the good work he wants in developing his young Lionesses reversed.

“It is about finding the balance,” he said.

“We have some incredible foreign players in our competition who have massively enhanced our league.

“The debate is always going to be about the next batch, the foreign players who come into the league and are not that much better than we have got but they are more experienced and, terribly, maybe cheaper.

“We have got to manage it. I go back to Eric Cantona, Dennis Bergkamp and Gianfranco Zola, the impact they made, and if we can get top, top players from around the world the impact they would have on our league and on some of our senior players will certainly help.”