When I was young and full of rage
I hated Tottenham to the core
But now I've reached a gentler age
I hate the fùckers even more.
Indeed - actually one of the things overlooked in Allardyce's interview is the fact that he says the bung culture is not what it was, which kind of undermines the Telegraph's football is more corrupt than ever point of view:
From the Times (naturally happy to play this up):
"Buried in that Telegraph article are comments from Allardyce dismissing the “bung” culture. “You daren’t even think about it”, “You can’t go there any more”, “You can’t pay a player, you can’t pay a manager, you can’t pay a CEO”, “It used to happen 20-odd, 30-odd years ago”. Given that one of the Telegraph’s aims was probably to get him talking candidly about the bung culture, as he did in that (in)famous Panorama investigation a decade ago, this seems like a fairly firm dismissal of that culture. I can only imagine they spent much of the four hours trying to get him to say something unwise about this – and he didn’t."
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
I am torn as to whether this is admirable or scum journalism.