Greed will stop sanity getting grip of football

But is there really any way back for a game which has long since taken leave of its senses?

And, if there was any further irrefutable evidence of that needed, we were given ample cause for its sectioning over the past 10 days.

The stench of the game’s murky side came wafting up once again with the Daily Telegraph’s investigation into football corruption last week.

We were promised findings to shake the game to its very foundations, by what was revealed.

In truth, aside from Barnsley coach Tommy Wright being caught with his fingers in the till, there was nothing to definitively bring down any of the figures under the microscope.

What was brought into focus for the public to digest, however, is there is no such breeding ground quite as fertile for greed as this beautiful game of ours.

And we had the man with the most prestigious job on these shores showing his financial gluttony to underline the point.

Oh, Samuel Allardyce. You had it all in your grasp.

We may have doubted your credentials for the role but, if nothing else, the fact the England manager’s job appeared to mean so much to you, well, it meant something.

Just that what you thought it meant was a passport to print money.

Now comes the reality the only trip you’re taking is one to your Spanish hideaway with the nation knowing your idiocy and avarice.

Whether Allardyce’s meeting with a fictitious Far East firm constituted a sackable offence is one thing.

Words mocking Roy ‘Woy’ Hodgson, having a pop at Gary Neville and his former FA paymasters were fluffy at best.

We’ve all had a moan about our bosses and gossiped about our peers; it’s hardly a reason to be given your cards.

The discussions over third-party ownership veer into a darker landscape, however.

Any suggestion of assistance to circumnavigate FA rules on the issue made his exit an open-and-shut case.

In the event, a ‘mutual agreement’ to terminate his contract made the debate largely inconsequential.

So Allardyce comes off looking a vaguely comical figure (‘keynote speaking, that’s what I’d be doing, keynote speaking. I’m a keynote speaker’), a bit like Alan Partridge doing a corporate presentation for Dante Fires.