Barely two months into his England tenure, Sam Allardyce has stepped down as national team manager – not because of poor performance but due to poor judgement. For the second time in recent history, an England manager has been caught out by undercover reporters.
An investigative team from The Daily Telegraph, a British broadsheet newspaper, caught Allardyce using his position to negotiate a £400,000 deal in which he volunteered his knowledge of how get around FA rules relating to transfers and the complicated third party ownership of foreign players.
Chasing the story for over eight months, the investigative team won the trust of Allardyce – who only landed his dream job of national team manager 67 days ago – as he opened up on a variety of topics that would shame his FA employers. He mocked former England manager Roy Hodgson’s speech, calling him “woy”, and spoke about boycotting Hodgson’s former assistant Gary Neville. He also described the English FA as “stupid” to spend £870 million to rebuild Wembley Stadium.
Following the story in which Allardyce’s transgressions were revealed, the veteran manager met with FA Chairman Greg Clarke and CEO Martin Glenn overnight where he offered his resignation rather than be sacked.
This is not the first time an England manager has been caught out undercover reporters. From fake sheiks (Sven Goran Eriksson) to faith healers (Glenn Hoddle), England national team managers have been frequently exposed in the spotlight. While the ethics of journalism in these stories are worth questioning, Allardyce only has himself to blame. Like Harry Redknapp, who lost out the opportunity to coach England because of his wheeler dealer nature in handling transfers, Allardyce is also famous for his under table dealings to land players.
And it is believed that Allardyce may not be the only one caught. A reporter from Sky Sports has revealed on Twitter that he has been given a list of seven managers who have been “stung by the Telegraph.” If this is the case, Big Sam will only be the starting point of what will be a huge story or football in England.
