The former West Ham boss could face the sack for comments made in a secret recording but for decades England managers have been the architects of their own downfall
COMMENT
One game into the job, Sam Allardyce’s future as England manager is already under threat. Yet anyone expressing surprise at the ability of a Three Lions boss to shoot himself in the foot so dramatically only need look at recent history to realise this is a disease that the national coach simply cannot shake off no matter what his identity.
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Allardyce’s decision to outline methods of circumventing restrictions on Third-Party Ownership to new acquaintances was ridiculously naïve. It was foolhardy. It was akin to schoolkids attempting to impress contemporaries in the playground with a nugget of information they know will widen the eyes of their audience. And all this in conversation with people he was meeting for the very first time.
But we have been here before far too often. In 1999, Glenn Hoddle thought it a good idea to speak out on issues of faith in an interview with The Times newspaper, and his claim that disabled people were paying the price for sins in a former life brought an avalanche of criticism from the general public which backed the FA into a corner. His subsequent sacking appeared the only way out at the time.
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England reign also ended early after an embarrassing sting, with the Swede meeting a ‘Fake Sheikh’ employed by the News of the World who presented himself as a potential investor in Aston Villa. Eriksson said he’d be open to leaving the national job should England be successful in the 2006 World Cup, and there was an outcry regarding his loyalty which ultimately led to him departing two years before the expiry of his contract.
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There have been other England bosses who have ended up walking away over matters away from the field of play too. Terry Venables quit in 1996 to focus on clearing his name against a string of allegations which had led his bosses to cool in their support of their manager. In one court case, the judge had called Venables’ evidence “not entirely reliable to put it at its most charitable.”


Rewind a couple of decades and there is the story of Don Revie, who responded to a difficult relationship with the FA and a string of poor results by negotiating a deal to become manager of the United Arab Emirates while he was meant to be completing a scouting mission, missing an England friendly for the cause. After quitting his home nation, the FA banned him for 10 years and while Revie managed to overturn the decision in court his reputation at home was permanently scarred by his so-called ‘desertion’.
Allardyce’s folly could well see him added to the list of England bosses whose spell in charge have ended on the back of unwise and embarrassing issues away from the actual football. Whereas others had been in the job long enough to provide enough misgivings over their record too, Big Sam’s case would surely be the most dramatic following his single game in charge against Slovakia earlier in September.
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But would that really achieve anything? And what did he actually do wrong? He was silly and has caused embarrassment, both in taking a childish swipe at his predecessor ‘Woy’ Hodgson and explaining how to side-step TPO restrictions. Yet he has not endorsed the breaking of any FIFA rules and regulations, and even flatly refused to talk about the very practice of handing bungs to players, managers or agents.
Allardyce should be allowed to live to fight another day. And he should be judged on his success or otherwise as the manager of the pilloried group of England players he admitted had let down Hodgson. But he would be very wise to learn from this lesson and keep his nose clean in future.
The foot-in-mouth disease of the England football manager just will not go away, and the FA once more finds itself having to decide whether it would be more humiliating to back or sack their man.