THE Football Association reacted admirably quickly to the stupidity of England team manager Sam Allardyce and removed him from the scene.
The FA had to act because Allardyce was clearly advocating a way of getting round the rules of the game.
Yes, he was the victim of an entrapment by Daily Telegraph journalists, but the fact is that he should not have been saying what he said.
There is little doubt, however, that other managers have said and done much worse than Allardyce and have so far gotten away with it, and that goes for individuals north and south of the Border, for Scotland is not immune to footballing skullduggery.
What is needed is a genuine investigation by football itself into the whole issue of managerial and agent misconduct.
The relationship between some managers and some agents – I emphasise some – has undoubtedly been too cosy for far too long, and it is surely necessary to discover what corruption has taken place.
There is no doubt that England has a far greater problem than most countries simply because of the sheer scale of the money involved in English football, and where there is money you will always find wrongdoing.
It is no secret among journalists that a set of reporters spent literally years investigating one group who were prominent in British football, but they could find nothing printable to bring them down because they covered their traces well.
Ultimately, Big Sam’s downfall came about because of pure greed and to that extent he deserves his fate of losing his dream job. He will not be lost to football for too long, however, as he is too good a manager to not be in the sport. After a decent interval of some weeks or months, I suspect we will see him in a dugout again.
Some pundits and fans seem to think that the waygoing of the England manager is good news for Scotland as their camp will be disrupted ahead of the big clash at Wembley on November 11. I do not see it that way, because I think England are too good a team in any case and it won’t matter who is in charge of them, even in the unlikely event of the FA finding a manager to replace temporary coach Gareth Southgate before then.
We need to look to our own selves and not worry about what’s happening elsewhere and that’s why the squad named by Gordon Strachan yesterday is good news because it appears to contain the right amount of experience and youthfulness.
It is good to see Lee Wallace and Shaun Maloney back in the reckoning and I also like the emphasis that Strachan is putting on players who are currently playing for their club regularly.
Losing Allardyce will disrupt England temporarily, but the Wembley match is many weeks away and things will settle down for them, but there’s a lot of football to be played before that November clash and Scotland must worry about Lithuania and Slovakia first before we worry about England, whoever manages them.
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