Big Sam undone

So Big Sam has been undone by greed. An England manager on £3 million a year shouldn't need to do deals with 'businessmen' from Singapore to be a 'keynote speaker' at £100k a pop. If it's too good to be true chances are it's a Daily Telegraph sting. Allardyce was clear he was going to notify his employers of the offer, but it's unlikely they would have ever agreed. 

It's also worrying that West Ham have been dragged into it, with Sam mentioning ways of 'getting round' the FA's third party ownership rules and bringing up the Enner Valencia deal. He did say that West Ham had bought the 'whole player', though some clarification from the club is now essential as to what type of deal it was and how much the agents received. David Sullivan is quoted in the Sun saying: "Valencia's economic rights were wholly owned by Pachuca when we bought him. Sam is wrong. But he didn't know much about the actual transfer deal other than wanting the player. We have not broken any rules on third party ownership."

For a man who often spoke about perception, Allardyce seems very poor at understanding how certain things will be perceived. He didn't seem to understand that ridiculing the West Ham way in his first press conference would immediately alienate the fans, as did his ear-cupping against Hull, or that the England manager has to be above grubby deals and can't be indiscreet about Roy Hodgson or the players or offer advice on ways around FA rules with people he's just met and had a social drink with. 

You do wonder why Allardyce was so foolish two weeks into the England job and why his agent Mark Curtis didn't stop him and was instead trying to bump up Sam's fee. And the sad part is that if he sticks to football he's a decent manager, not to everyone's taste admittedly, but he just might have instilled some more self-belief into the England side. Now England are in turmoil too.