****ing hell wonder what Sam is thinking tonight. Finally landed his dream job and has lost it before it even got going properly due to him being unable to keep his gob shut. What an utter, utter plank.
Greedy bastard was on £3m a year from FA bit couldn't turn down £400k - serves the fat ****er right. will be interesting to see who else is on the list!
It'd the incredible stupidity and greed that gets me. You're the England manager, you must know that you're up there to be shot at. All of a sudden, along comes a mysterious 'far eastern syndicate' making all kinds of offers, presenting all kinds of dodgy temptations. Yet, you don't even do any background checks? Don't as a few pointed questions through a third party to check who you're talking to? Before you agree to even meet them?.... Greedy and stupid! **** the fat dozy twat....
I thought he'd do well as England manager. He's a colossal moron for ****ing it up for a few quid more on top of his mammoth salary. The problem in football is the agents. They're not football people, they're money people and they suck the football people into their world with offers of free cash that are hard to turn down.
Looking at this in the cold light of day, it's a very sorry episode all round. Sam's agent is a bell end for not checking the credentials of the people he got Sam to meet. Sam is a greedy bell end for agreeing to go only weeks into his new job knowing that the aim of the meeting was to arrange some lucrative speaking dates, when he should have said 'no ta, I'm going to concentrate on my new role' The Torygraph are snakes for putting a few beers in him and then sliding in questions about 3rd party ownership. What Sam said won't be news to anyone within the game, and what has been construed as 'advice' was merely him explaining what goes on. The aim of the meeting was to arrange speaking dates, they just got him to open up and he got his kecks pulled down. No-one involved comes out with any credit for me. The FA have done what I suppose they had to do, given their stance on the integrity of the game, but the reality is nothing good has come from this, barring the Torygraph selling a few more copies.
Agree with all that except the bit in bold and that depends on your view on investigative journalism. This wasn't a sleazy catch him in a lap dancing bar effort, there's clear public interest in this information coming out. Journalists go undercover all the time chasing down stories that are in the public interest and granted while this wasn't about breaking a drug smuggling ring or catching human traffickers, in a sporting sense it's a pretty big underhand practice they've brought to light. Let's not forget that Sam was only days into the job, hadn't even taken his first training session. He also chose not to respond to contact from the paper before the story went to press.
not really, everyone knew it, you just had look at the commissions the 'agents' are getting to realise what's going on that the ineffectual associations turn a blind eye to. Pogba is a prime example, he wanted to go to Man U, Man U wanted him, Juventus wanted the money yet somehow the agent has walked away with about 25%, and MSI still 'owned' Tevez in 2009, a year after TPO was banned, will Man City and Man Utd get done? nooo, only West Ham have been done for it, 2 years before it was banned.
Is there? What did we learn from it mate? Sam explained the way around 3rd party ownership, as if anyone in the game didn't know that's how it works already. There can be half a dozen different agents all taking a slice of the cake on these big deals these days, is anyone really surprised that they're circumventing the FIFA ruling? Aside from that, what part was a revelation? Sam being a greedy get prepared to ask the FA if he could do some moonlighting in return for £400k? Not really, as I reckon they'd have probably sanctioned it, and he was clear when he said he was going to ask first. Does that make it right? Maybe not, but again it's nothing Earth shattering. I think the Telegraph printing the story today without naming any names is merely casting a cloud over every manager in the PL, and they've done so as they patently haven't got enough to hang their balls out and put names to it, merely the word of some random agent.
The public interest isn't just the footballing fraternity interest though is it? It's wider than that. It sullies our name on a world wide basis that the manager of our national team of our national game is getting caught with his hands in the till. Similar case in point - people who have no interest whatsoever in cycling have an interest in the Wiggins [alleged] doping claims and how that reflects badly not just in the sport but on the country's good name as a whole since he represents all of us in international competition. Look what we all think about Russia after the Olympic ban - it goes beyond the sport. It reflects badly on the nation. I didn't know there were ways around TPO and that some were actively promoting it let alone one of them being the England manager. How did he get the job if the FA higher ups had even the slightest sniff of it? If they didn't know how come some on here seem so well clued up? As for revelations, they're usually about specifics as this case is. The revelation is in the who, where and when, not the actual practice itself. As I said yesterday, I don't feel sorry for Allardyce he brought it on himself but he's in effect lost our Sammy his job as well
Might be a bit of a stretch for the meaning of the phrase but I stand by it. Skimming money on illicit transfers is akin to stealing. I've just read this as well As for Big Sam, while it seems unlikely in the extreme that the 61-year-old will ever work at Barclays Premier League level again, this being football we can probably expect him to be back at West Ham within the week. There is enormous money to be made legitimately in English football right now but power corrupts and he was not the first and will not be the last to be caught with his hands in the till. Perhaps his perfect record as England manager will sustain him as he involuntarily enters early retirement.
personally I'm hoping HMRC take a bit more of an interest, they've got a bit of a hard on for football, and I'd love to see SAF do a Lester Piggott.
