Colourful tales are being told about the previous regime and his current crop of players.
Only this time, the England manager knows the people he is talking to are journalists. Indeed, the bar bill was being picked up by the FA media department, ear-wigging as they scurry around replacing each bottle their new manager empties.
Having appointed Allardyce, the FA wanted to give journalists a first-hand blast of the Big Sam effect they had bought into.
Here was the larger-than-life character who was going to breathe energy into a national team at its limpest ebb. And so what if some of the comments were a little disrespectful? Much of what had gone on in the summer had been worthy of disrespect.
Now detractors are suggesting Allardyce’s reputation is forever tarnished, making him unemployable in this country.
Wrong. He will be back in the game by Christmas if he wants, probably in the top flight.
Why? Because club chairmen are not bound by the need to be seen to “do the right thing”. They simply demand results. All of Allardyce’s clubs have benefited – uniquely each in his long career has been left in a better place than he found it.
Meanwhile Clarke must oversee the appointment of a more “appropriate” England manager with the team’s fortunes at a lower ebb than ever.
No wonder the countdown clock at St George’s Park to Dyke’s aspiration World Cup success has been removed.
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