Allardyce self destructs

I’ve been selling one or two things on Ebay recently and two weeks ago a chap came down from Bolton with a horse box to collect a GPlan dining room suite. 70’s GPlan is all the rage at the moment. Anyway as we were loading up the horsebox we got chatting and it transpired that he was a big Bolton Wanderers fan and had been to Molineux on many occasions the last being during the time of John McGinley et al, not an era well loved by Wolves supporters since Bolton always seemed to get the better of us.

Anyway our conversation drifted onto Big Sam and his appointment as Commander in Chief of English football. He loved Sam and particularly the period when he brought in the likes of Yuri Djorkaev and Jay Jay Akotcha, adding a touch of samba style football to northern grit. He then went on to claim that Sam had lost his job at Bolton because of an alleged affair with the then Chairman’s wife. If true not the most prudent of career moves.

And, as we now know, it’s not the only indiscretion circling around the bluff Dudley lad. Ten years ago a Panorama investigation claimed that Allardyce had been involved in three questionable transfers where bungs had been paid. Sam jumped up and down, uttered the odd swear word and threatened to sue but in the end did not. His affection for money had been fostered during his playing days when he discovered that being a loyal one club man was not the way to riches. Far better to seek a transfer every two years, taking a cut of the transfer and signing on fees whilst all the while negotiating an increase in one’s basic pay.

Given these character traits, and the self serving nature of football where huge sums of money are currently sloshing around, should we therefore be surprised that an annual salary of £3m is not sufficient to prevent a dalliance with some shady Eastern businessman offering dodgy booty. Some have argued that Allardyce has been unfairly treated, for during the Daily Telegraph sting, no contract was signed and he clearly stated that before proceeding he would have to first run it by his bosses at the FA. Surely that is not the point. Anyone with a modicum of judgment would never have been there in the first place. Rather than in some wanabee bar he should have been at home pouring over video’s of Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford and asking why, for his first game in charge, did he pick the former and not the latter?

His judgment, as in so many areas, was clearly impaired.

©Mark Brennand

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