Saturday 1 October 2016

Grubby Allardyce got what he deserved

GREEDY Sam Allardyce made history this week by resigning as England manager after just 67 days and one match.

Unsurprisingly, that makes it the shortest ever reign of any Three Lions head coach.

Allardyce, of course, was left with little choice, and he jumped before he was set to be pushed out by the Football Association following damaging revelations released as part of a wider series of investigations into football corruption by the Daily Telegraph.

In an undercover interview, Allardyce was caught on camera giving advice to reporters posing as Far East businessmen on how to “get round rules” about third-party ownership of players.

He added that it was “not a problem” to bypass the rules introduced by the FA in 2008, and told the reporters he knew of certain agents “doing it all the time".

But, perhaps most critically of all, Allardyce was seen to be chasing money.

On the tape, filmed at some time between his appointment and his first match, the 61-year-old clearly offers to fly out to Asia four times a year to address investors in a firm that wanted to buy footballers.

For this, he appears to agree a fee of £400,000 a year - despite the fact that he had already signed a contract worth £3m-a-year with the FA. It was hardly as if he needed the extra cash.

The Telegraph released its story late on Monday night with the FA immediately requesting a full transcript of the secret recordings. By the end of Tuesday night, Allardyce had left his post by "mutual agreement".

Frankly, anything short of that outcome would have left the FA in an extremely hypocritical position.

After all, it was the FA - maybe more than any other body in world football - which had called on FIFA to ban the third-party ownership of players, something which the world governing body eventually did last year.

Unabashed, Allardyce has since defended himself, claiming "entrapment has won" - and, incredibly, it is a view which appears to have garnered some sympathy for him in some quarters.

True, Allardyce did not break any laws - and the undercover means used by the Telegraph to obtain their information will always cause some people discomfort.

But it is surely better to have an active investigative media exposing corruption - rather than one which placidly acquiesces.

Moreover, it is hardly as if investigating corruption in football is a new topic for this particular newspaper, as a spokesman for the Telegraph pointed out.

"We began looking into corruption in English football last year after receiving information about specific managers, officials and agents - before Allardyce was appointed England manager."

The spokesman added: "We have an obligation to investigate important stories that are clearly within the public interest and adhere to our industry codes of practice in doing so."

Remember also that, while there is no suggestion that Allardyce acted against any of the laws of the land, he did totally undermine his employer in greedy act of gross stupidity.

After all, undercover reporters posing as shadowy businessmen is hardly a new watershed for the world of journalism.

Indeed, on that basis, this whole episode - going right back to when England were dumped out of Euro 2016 and subsequently appointed Allardyce - has been pretty baffling.

Having expressed my fears for the future of English football just over two months ago on the 50th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup Final, Allardyce's ego may have - by chance - pointed the team in the right direction.

First, though, Gareth Southgate has been made caretaker for at least four games to the end of the calendar year, evidence seemingly of the existence of the Peter principle.

The Peter principle is a concept which concludes that an employee who stays long enough at an organisation will eventually be promoted to a station above their ideas or competence.

However, in fairness to the FA on this occasion, there were very few valid alternative options for the short-term. Instead, it is the next decision which is the vital one for the FA.

With Southgate seemingly willing to remain in place for as long as the process takes, England could do a lot worse than call on Arsene Wenger at the end of his Arsenal contract next summer.

Coincidentally, Wenger today celebrates exactly 20 years in charge of the Gunners - but, to the disgruntlement of some of their fans, he seems to have fallen into a comfort zone there.

Nevertheless, Wenger's principled approach is exactly what England need after this damaging period - and it surely should not matter that he is a foreigner given his vast knowledge of the English game.

A highly technical coach, he would possibly even eliminate the fear felt by players by giving them genuine confidence on the ball.

Consequently, England might therefore even stand a chance of genuinely challenging again at major tournament finals.

Of course, the problems in football are far more widespread than just the England job. As the Telegraph continues slowly to leak its stories, the view that greed is endemic at the top-level of the game is simply unavoidably reinforced.

And yet, in a world where Premier League television rights were sold for a record £5.14bn, it seems inevitable that good money and bad will continue to slosh around the game, regardless of how many more newspaper articles there are for now.

No doubt then this topic will be revisited by the media in the years to come, which is all the more reason for the FA to complete due diligence ahead of any of its future appointments.

Curiously, Allardyce will surely be the only permanent England manager ever to hold a 100% record at the end of his tenure.

But, having failed even once to lead the Three Lions out at Wembley and destroyed for himself what was supposedly his dream job, it will always be a shameful record.

It was a shameful appointment in the first place.

PERMANENT ENGLAND MANAGERS

YearPWDLWin %
Walter WINTERBOTTOM(1946-1962)13978332856.1%
Alf RAMSEY(1963-1974)11369271761.1%
Don REVIE(1974-1977)29148748.3%
Ron GREENWOOD(1977-1982)5533121060.0%
Bobby ROBSON(1982-1990)9547301849.5%
Graham TAYLOR(1990-1993)381813747.4%
Terry VENABLES(1994-1996)231111147.8%
Glenn HODDLE(1996-1999)28176560.7%
Kevin KEEGAN(1999-2000)1877438.9%
Sven-Göran ERIKSSON(2001-2006)6740171059.7%
Steve McCLAREN(2006-2007)1894550.0%
Fabio CAPELLO(2008-2012)42288666.7%
Roy HODGSON(2012-2016)563315858.9%
Sam ALLARDYCE(2016)1100100.0%

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