The sports mafia that’s kept Big Sam’s secrets safe for years
Sun columnist says sports journalists have long since known about allegations against ex-England boss Sam Allerdyce, but are too scared to ruin their reputations by printing them
THE biggest laugh I’ve had in the Sam Allardyce fiasco was the revelation that he once paid £20,000 a month to Max Clifford to clean up his image.
That was a decade ago when he appeared to be in a degree of difficulty after Panorama had suggested that while at Bolton he had taken bungs from agents to sign certain players.
He threatened to sue but never did.
Instead he hired Clifford.
So what happened?
Allardyce continued to have gossip surrounding him but still landed the England job.
And to Clifford?
Well, he’s currently serving his eight years for sexual abuse.
You couldn’t make it up, could you?
I’m with Gary Lineker as this is clearly a job for Plod, but I fear we may not get anywhere as the second-biggest scalp in the frame appears to be the assistant manager at Barnsley.
I was at the League One Charlton-Oldham game on Tuesday night and as the news spread that Allardyce had been kicked out, a little chant went up — “Slade for England”, an ironic reference to Charlton’s hopeless manager Russell Slade.
Very funny though.
I digress. The real bad boys in this affair are the sports journalists.
They have been hearing this type of stuff for years and yet have never written a word about it for fear that it will ruin their cosy relationship with players, managers and owners.
Can I explain something to them.
They are not PRs for the clubs.
They are supposed to be disclosing to readers, viewers and listeners what is really going on in football.
Better to be banned from the ground than to not do your well-paid job properly.
Instead writers (and I have one particular example in mind) spend their entire time hanging around radio studios giving their views about Allardyce and Co but not once disclosing important questionable information they have picked up on the grapevine.
Perhaps they are more interested in the books they ghost-write and the size of their Twitter following than blowing the whistle.
My bet is that Allardyce will be back as the Sunderland manager before Christmas.
If he’s still there in a couple of years he can rehire Clifford as he will be out by then.
Perhaps even the sports writers will recognise that that’s a story.
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Grafters will kill off Corb
FORGET Labour trying to turn us into Cuba without the sunshine.
I am pleased to report new stats show the self-employed will save us from Jeremy Corbyn’s grip.
Within three years the number of folk working for themselves will have passed the number of state employees.
How incredible.
Currently there are 5,330,000 in the public sector (the number goes down every year) while, thanks to the opportunities and freedoms offered by the online world, the graph for the self-employed goes in the opposite direction.
About 15 per cent of the total workforce (4,760,000) are self-employed – in 1975 that number was 7.5 per cent – and that is very bad news for Labour.
These people are NEVER going to vote for a Jezza.
They work their own very often long hours, there is no sick pay nor employment rights but they enjoy being their own boss and like the flexibility.
Most are not making a fortune – often having more than one “employer”– but they have control over their lives.
This is the complete opposite of the nonsense spouted in Liverpool this week where it was all about command from the centre.
One other bright spot: The number of VAT-registered businesses (it means they must have a turnover of £83,000) has hit an all-time high of 2.1million.
Add to that the 400,000 businesses founded by someone born during or after 1982 and you can see that John McDonnell will be whistling Dixie out of his rear end before the electorate will vote for his mob.
AVOIDING BORING COLLEAGUES
AN excellent biography on post-war Labour leader Clement Attlee has one anecdote I enjoyed.
Cabinet member Richard Crossman was banging on endlessly about the cost of German reunification when Attlee finally shut him up by saying: “I saw your mother last week. She was looking very well.”
So when a colleague/friend is boring you to death, just chip in: “I saw your mother last week. She was looking very well.”
That will work better than pointedly studying your smartphone.
In hunt for Rudd's job
JEREMY HUNT will have done his leadership ambitions no harm with the cool, intelligent and persuasive way he saw off the none-too-bright junior doctors.
Despite being abused at every turn this past couple of years, he calmly stood his ground and comprehensively defeated the white-coated rabble in both the court of public opinion and the court of law.
If Amber Rudd turns out to be a dud at the Home Office, Theresa May will have a handy replacement.
Macho man
WITH the Village People look Tom Hiddleston adopted for his , you don’t think his relationship with Taylor Swift ended so badly that he is sending out a signal to his army of female admirers that from now on he is catching the other bus?
HUMAN RIGHTS FARCE
WHEN it comes to migration, I note that in Denmark human rights trump paedophilia.
Two brides aged 14 have been reunited with their husbands of 24 and 28 as the immigration service has decided forcing married couples to live apart violated the right to family life guaranteed in the European Convention.
In our country those men would be in jail for a long time but in EU land they are given a warm double bed.
Thank God we are heading for the door.
Met Chief's five years of failure
AS I forecast in this column earlier this month, Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is being shown the door.
Not before time.
He must be the most disliked senior police officer in history.
I hated him for his one-man crusade against Sun journalists for supposedly paying public officials for stories.
I am wholly in favour of these payments when there is a clear public interest as how else are we (that’s you and me) supposed to discover what is going on inside taxpayer-funded entities?
Their PRs won’t tell you as it is their job to lead the cover-up.
In any event the juries agreed with me.
They threw out all the charges and eventually the halfwits at the Crown Prosecution Service folded their tent.
Twenty-eight Sun staff walked and one is appealing his conviction.
All this was much to the disappointment of Hogan-Howe.
He got his revenge by stopping even the most casual conversations between his officers and journalists.
You might remember he was right behind the persecution of Field Marshal Lord Bramall for alleged sexual abuse.
Not a word of truth in it but not a word of remorse until The Sun and others gave him a whack.
Finally, he was even disliked by his own colleagues.
They didn’t have a decent word for him.
His legacy? A trail of failure.
I seriously hope he doesn’t enjoy his retirement.
Punnies
DRIVING school in Herne Bay, Kent – Ls Angels.
Fitness centre in Norwich – Waist Disposal Centre.
On the side of a refuse truck in New Orleans – Our Business Is Rubbish But It’s Picking Up.
Gardener’s van in Faversham, Kent – Bourne To Garden.
Barber’s in Wokingham, Berks – Hairy Poppins.
Roadside food van in Galleywood, Essex – Get Stuffed.
Driving school in Bridgnorth, Shrops – Kiss My Pass.
Foam supplier in Stockport, Gtr Manchester – Sherlock Foams.
Optician in Halki, Greece – Optimist.
Clothes shop in Harlech, North Wales – A Damsel In This Dress.
Keep the nation smiling by sending your punnies to [email protected].
LOYALTY doesn’t pay.
Verona Faulkner has a rather nice house in St Albans, Herts, and for ten years had trusted Barclays with her home and contents insurance as she had her mortgage with them.
Then came her renewal for an incredible £2,126, so she went on and got the same cover for £600 from Axa, although they weren’t the cheapest.
She called Barclays and they said, “Yes, that’s a good price,” but made no effort to counter it.
It’s the same with energy, as Heather Vinten from Selsey, West Sussex, will tell you.
She has saved £638 by switching gas and electricity after being with the same supplier for five years.
Loyalty is for the birds.