Neville on Allardyce exit

Gary Neville believes Sam Allardyce’s sacking sets a precedent the Football Association must stick to going forward.

Allardyce’s reign as England boss was cut short just 67 days into his tenure after a Daily Telegraph investigation filmed him discussing a number of controversial topics, including third-party ownership of players – an aspect of the game the FA have played a key role in banning.

Neville, who was assistant to Allardyce’s predecessor Roy Hodgson, believes Allardyce may have been able to keep hold of his job had he forged stronger relationships with fans, players and the FA itself over a longer period of time.

However, given the proximity of the scandal to his appointment, Neville felt the FA were justified in their swift action of removing him.

Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, the Sky Sports pundit said: “For four years it was pretty placid in terms of the headlines but what’s happened this week has taken me back to my first 20 years with England and previous managers where these type of scandals, unfortunately, happened quite often.

“It’s been a messy week, Sam has been clumsy and he’s admitted that, he’s been caught up in pub chat.

“It’s an interesting situation though, if Sam had been in the job for 12 months and built up some more embedded …

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