Sam Allardyce Sting And Six Other Storms That Prove England Managers And The Media Don't Mix

Remember the 'wally with a brolly'?
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Sam Allardyce is currently learning the hard way that the media and England managers don’t mix.

On the brink: The future of England Manager Sam Allardyce hangs in the balance after a newspaper sting.
On the brink: The future of England Manager Sam Allardyce hangs in the balance after a newspaper sting.
Martin Rickett/PA Wire

In an undercover operation by The Daily Telegraph - said to have been recorded in August - Allardyce meets a group of people claiming to represent a firm in the Far East.

Allardyce, who is paid £3 million a year plus bonuses by the FA, is then said to have used his role to negotiate a £400,000 deal.

The FA has asked to see the newspaper’s recordings and Allardyce, who has only been in charge for one game having taken over the role in July, is yet to comment.

Some have tried to pin blame on the media for the scandal...

Allardyce is not the only one to find out the hard way that the British media can be cruel to England bosses, but it’s the managers themselves who end up apologising.

1
Glenn Hoddle
Hoddle was sacked from his job as England manager over comments he made about disabled people.

The controversy arose over an interview written in The Times in which he appeared to suggest that people had disabilities because they were being punished for something they did in a previous life.

He said: "You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains.

"Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime.

"I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap."

His contract with the Football Association was terminated in February 1999.

Hoddle apologised for the "serious error of judgement" and returned to management within the year, this time in charge of Southampton.
2
Steve McClaren
McClaren was sacked by a unanimous decision by the FA after England failed to qualify for the Euros in 2008.

McClaren was described as a "wally with a brolly" by the Mail and the Daily Telegraph headlined their story "unqualified failure", showing there was little love for the manager.

He has been plagued by the umbrella jibe ever since.
3
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Eriksson fell victim to an elaborate sting in which an undercover reporter from the now-defunct News Of The World newspaper pretended to be a wealthy sheikh.

When "Fake Sheikh" Mazher Mahmood convinced him he wanted to buy Aston Villa, the then-England manager was taped saying he would be prepared to leave the national team to become manager there.

After these discussions were made public, Eriksson spent the following day calling top members of the England squad to apologise, according to the Guardian.

However, both the FA and Eriksson denied this played a part in the decision for him to leave his England job after the 2006 World Cup.
4
Sven again
John Stillwell/PA Archive
Eriksson also found himself embroiled in a scandal which involved his private life.

Former FA secretary Faria Alam (pictured) had affairs with both Eriksson and the Association's chief executive Mark Palios. She resigned but took the case to an employment tribunal, claiming she was the victim of constructive dismissal.

She also claimed she was sexual harassed by FA executive director David Davies, something he strongly denied.

Details of her relationships were splashed across newspapers for some time but she lost the case.
5
Roy Hodgson
Lewis Stickley/PA Archive
Hodgson was the subject of ridicule over his speech when it was announced that he would be taking the reins of the England squad.

Hodgson does not have a speech impediment but the style of speech is called rhotacism - when a speaker pronounces an R to sound more like a W.

He was mocked by The Sun, who ran the headline "Bwing On The Euwos" on their front page.

This prompted much debate over whether it was appropriate to poke fun at people's style of speech, with the chair of the British Stammering Association saying such an attitude was "wrong".

The FA was said to be furious at the front page, releasing a statement which said: "The FA and the Press Complaints Commission have today received a large number of objections relating to the front page headline in the Sun newspaper, regarding Roy Hodgson's manner of speech.

"On this occasion, we will not be making an official complaint to the PCC but we have raised it with the newspaper and made it clear that their front page is unacceptable to us."
6
Fabio Capello
Adam Davy/EMPICS Sport
Capello quit his role as England manager after the team's captain John Terry had the captaincy removed by the Football Association.

Terry had been stripped of the captaincy over allegations that Terry had racially abused Queen's Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand.

But this was not the first time Terry had lost the captaincy. Capello himself had sacked him as captain following allegations he had an affair with team mate Wayne Bridges' ex-girlfriend.

Bridge quit the England squad over the incident.

Capello faced criticism for his handling of the whole Terry affair from the media.
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