firing line from the punditocracy of British ex managers and players. After all, in a world where everyone's on the take, everyone hates the guy who isn't, don't they?
Oh, I'm sure He *is*, at least by the standards of this latest kerfuffle anyway. He'd be hard for anyone to pin down though as the circle of people He deals with wouldn't be within Fleet Street's sphere (nobody else does investigative reporting like they can).
Also He's certainly disciplined enough not to mouth off in front of people who haven't been fairly conclusively vetted.
Excellent fellow. Discretion is His watchword.
"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 certainly think he's far too clever to compromise his extremely well-paid position by taking one-off bungs of relatively piddling sums.
I think that's the most repellent aspect of it - most of these chaps are extremely well-remunerated, but cannot resist the allure of 'free' cash and will happily beg and wheedle for relative scraps.
It's not about the money. It's the need to be seen to be a bigshot, a mover and a shaker, a someone. Of course, as the success of that project will be indeed measured in cash, that's the thing people can focus on.
People behave the way they behave because that's the way they behave. A hound doesn't stop chasing after hare just because he has a tin of Chunky Lumps at home, does he.
"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."