I never turn on the tv in the mornings. Well, only if something BIG has happened the night before. The last time I turned it on was after the last general election. Just in time for the Leeds result which changed Ed Balls’ career from fat, loud-mouthed politician to fat, loud-mouthed ballroom dancer. To be honest, he’s shit at both.

But I turned it on this morning. I wanted to see what happened in the Trump/Clinton slag-fest over in New York last night. And slag each other off they indeed did. You said, he said, she said, they said. All manner of things. Denials, accusations, insults, histories. Like schoolkids in the playground calling each other names to try and score points with the braying hordes assembled.

We don’t do ‘head-to-head’ pre-election debates over here. Mainly because there’s too many heads involved. Where would you stop? Would the Monster Raving Loonies get a ‘head’? Would the Lib-Dems?? And watching what transpired last night with Hils and Don, I’m glad we don’t. You get the two people vying for the most powerful job in the world and reducing themselves to the worst kind of undignified tabloidesque monsters for the duration. Though in Don’s case, what you see is pretty much what you get.

What you don’t get is policies, ideas, visions of the future. There’s no time in between all the shouting and insults.

But what I also learned on the tv this morning, again, something that happened too late to reach my morning paper, was that Sam Allardyce has been a bit of a naughty boy. In fact, possibly, allegedly (though there’s shit-loads of video footage), an exceptionally naughty boy.

Sam was enticed to a meeting with some ‘businessmen’ to discuss various things, including the acquisition of British footballers by ‘third party’ agents who would ‘own’ them or part of them. Maybe a leg. A neck. A testicle. So that when the rest of that player is transferred for £57million, that little testicle might be worth a good few mil to them. Third party ownership. Banned by the FA. The farce by which Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano first came to West Ham, ‘owned’ by their agent.

And Sam told these ‘businessmen’ that there are ways to circumvent the ruling… lots of money to be made… I know how to do it… blah, blah, ain’t I fucking clever… blah, blah, blah.

These people offered him, vaguely, £400,000 to ‘assist’ and set up a meeting in Singapore with the ‘investors’ involved. At which point Sam did say he’d need to ‘run it past his bosses’, in reference to the FA, which is odd if any kind of ‘bung’ is involved from an illegal proposition.

But in fact its all a tabloid ‘sting’. The Daily Telegraph set it all up. The ‘businessmen’ were reporters and Sam was filmed all the way. Hah!! Gotcha!!!

The Daily Telegraph is the real loser here. What kind of fucking hi-brow journalism is that? Its the sort of shit that had the News of the World shut down for good. Take a man out and make him feel big and special and he’ll fill the role. He’ll SAY he can do anything, he’ll SAY lots of silly things. Its a testosterone problem, an ego issue. Doesn’t mean he’d do it.

I have no massive love for Sam Allardyce, nor a lot of trust, really, but The Daily Telegraph should be seriously ashamed of resorting to gutter sleaze, of ‘creating news’ and of acting like the Sun.

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx