And then Big Sam went and made a colossal mess.
Big Sam Sacked?
Okay so at the time of writing, Big Sam is basically out the door. The FA are investigating, they are not happy, he's been summoned to crisis talks and the newspapers are reporting that he will be sacked. So I'm going to play the numbers game and assume that Sam Allardyce will no longer be England manager by the end of the week, maybe even the end of the day. So with that in mind, I thought I'd discuss possible replacements as well as the big question of whether he deserves to be sacked.
Should Allardyce Go?
But first, a brief outline of what has happened in the last 24 hours or so. So the Daily Telegraph published an expose, outlining a dinner meeting between Big Sam and a couple of undercover reporters, posing as businessmen. At this meeting, Allardyce agreed a deal in principle to travel to Hong Kong and Singapore and represent a company he'd never heard of (because they're fictional) giving speeches on how to get around the FA and FIFA's laws on third-party ownership, a practice that there is a worldwide ban on. Essentially, Big Sam sold himself for £400,000, despite being on a £3m a year FA contract. But, just as damning for Allardyce, in the meeting he was recorded insulting his predecessor Roy Hodgson, Gary Neville, the FA and Wembley stadium. Ouch.
So there are a number of things to unpack here. The first for me, is the money factor. The idea that Big Sam is making extra money on the side, despite a hefty FA contract, is not that relevant. If he wants to use his skills to make more money then so be it, the FA aren't paying him to give them and only them his expertise. This was displayed as a crude attempt to get as much money as possible from being England boss to which I say: so what? England players make millions off sponsorship deals, it's just one of those things. Allardyce himself noted that it was 'in principle okay' since he was only doing four meetings a year and wouldn't conflict with his day job.
However, and it's a big however, this was not done above the table. If Big Sam wants to earn more money fine, but he can't do it behind the FA's back. More importantly is not the fact that he's making money, but how he's making it, by showing a blatant disregard for the laws of both the FA and FIFA.
I want to leave to one side whether or not third-party ownership in football is a bad thing because to be honest it's tangential to the discussion. If it is "slavery" as some people call it, then that just makes Allardyce look even worse. If it is no big deal, as the England manager scoffs then that makes no difference, because either way he's completely and utterly deserving of being sacked. As the manager of your national football team, you simply cannot completely undermine your country's FA or FIFA in general and be paid to advise getting around FA and FIFA laws. You simply can't. You can't be a manager representing a football association if you sneak around behind their backs to ignore the very rules that that association (and world football as a hole) abides by. If the question of third-party ownership is an unjust one, then you don't get stand against it by lining your own pocket to help out companies in the Far East.
Just as damning for Big Sam though, albeit arguably less morally shady, were his words about Hodgson, the FA and Neville. The truth is, Big Sam has been well and truly caught with his trousers down. He's insulted his bosses on camera. He's publicly humiliated his employer, made them look incredibly stupid and made himself out to be a complete fool. And that's the reason that he will be sacked. Maybe not the reason he should be sacked, because in my book corruption is worse than saying a few nasty, if honest, home truths about the FA (especially when basically everything he said about Roy and the FA is basically true). But nevertheless, the FA have been embarrassed by this, and they cannot simply stand back and let Big Sam get away with it. The FA are a weak, reactive, and really, really badly organisation administration, but even they can see that Big Sam simply has to go.
Who Can Replace Him?
So if, as expected, Sam Allardyce is sacked as England manager, then who should replace him? Well there are a number of British candidates available at the moment. The likes of Glen Hoddle and Gareth Southgate will very much be in the picture, and the names of Tim Sherwood, Alan Pardew, Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes may very well be on people's lips. But none of these managers are the right candidate for the job at the moment. Hoddle had his chance, Southgate doesn't have the experience, Pardew and Sherwood are just plain bad managers, and Hughes and Pulis are still in jobs. Whilst I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to Pulis or Hughes, Hughes had his chance at a big club and it went sideways, and Pulis' style of football would upset the English fans even more than Big Sam's.
Of course, that leaves the man who was allegedly was the FA's number two choice a few months ago: Steve Bruce. To be honest, the idea of Steve Bruce being England manager doesn't fill me with confidence. He's very much in the mould of Allardyce, a mould that I wasn't actively against but at the same time never fully endorsed, but he's nowhere near as good as Big Sam at what he does. The question of whether or not he's the best English or British choice for me is a fallacious one, as it assumes that an nonviable English choice is better than a viable foreign manager, which is simply not true.
I'm not saying I don't want an English/British manager to manage England, but what I am saying is that we already picked the best one and he didn't work out. Truthfully, I thought Big Sam was an okay choice but nowhere near the best one, and any downgrade on Big Sam really isn't a viable option for me.
So, foreign managers then. The obvious choice 'free' at the moment is Manuel Pellegrini (who is currently working in China so shouldn't take much convincing with the right paycheck). This strikes me as the epitome of a mediocre choice. I like Pellegrini, but he did a decidedly average job at Man City, and there's nothing to suggest he'd excel with England. He did well with Villareal, but failed to excel at Real Madrid or City. Jurgen Klinsmann's management of the US national team is not popular over there and doesn't appear to be good enough credentials for the job either, and whilst I would be 100% behind his appointment, it doesn't look as if Arsene Wenger wants the job.
So who do the FA appoint? For me, the answer is nobody. Okay hear me out. They appoint Southgate as an interim manager and wait maybe six months, or until next summer. Right now, there appear to me to be no good candidates for the position (which should not be an argument to keep Big Sam by the way) and the last thing that the FA want to do is hire someone mediocre and have a top class manager fall out of a job by the end of the season. As I said when Roy was sacked, the best option is to wait and see what happens. Particularly in the Premier League, the managerial situation fluctuates very quickly and you never know where anyone will be at the end of the season. So their best option is to see who is available in the summer.
Of course, they could have just sacked Roy earlier and hired Brodge, but it's a bit late for that now...
The Hard and Fast Section
- Burnley picked up a crucial 2-0 win over Watford.
- Champions League tonight. Leicester and Spurs in action.
- Konta through to the last 16 in China.
- Wiggins drug accusations getting very spicy. Tomorrow: discussion.
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