Sam Allardyce played the victim card in his pathetic apology when he could have salvaged some respect

After his dismissal as England manager, Allardyce could have offered to help shine a light on football's murky side

Sam Allardyce was never likely to be found leafing through Stefan Zwieg’s Beware of Pity a la the cerebral Roy Hodgson but he could be heard on Wednesday searching for some of the stuff. Perhaps “Pity Me” will be his next book title.

Allardyce was out there playing the victim card: “Entrapment has won on this occasion,” he complained outside his Bolton home. That may be but the grimy world of football agents, third party ownership and transfer fees needs investigating so The Daily Telegraph should be applauded for getting its hands dirty.

The very fact that Allardyce was bragging about knowing methods to circumvent football’s third party ownership rules means that football’s third party ownerships rules need tightening up and the newspaper involved are right to shine a light on it.

Are we to wait for the Football Association to launch its own investigation into agents, bungs and the like? Or maybe that bastion of righteousness Fifa is planning a crackdown?

Until then why shouldn’t the flaws in the system be exposed? Allardyce, rather than complaining of being the victim, would have been wiser walking down his Bolton drive and announcing that this whole ugly affair had taught him a lesson and he now realises, thanks to his unwitting part in bringing it to light, that this shadowy side of football needs more transparency and better policing. He could even have offered to help with that given the he, after all, has such intimate knowledge of it.

Wouldn’t that have been a surprising turn of events and a way for Allardyce to reach into the rubble of his career and salvage a modicum of respect?

Instead, he chose to be defensive and accusatory by using the word “entrapment”. He should have passed that Mayfair table napkin to reporters to dry their tears.

“I was trying to help someone out I knew for 30 years,” he added. Ahhh, so Big Sam was actually being kind and generous to a mate when he was seeking to be paid £150k for “keynote speaking” and socialising at the hotel bar.

As apologies go it was a lamentable effort and merely reinforces the belief that he was never the right man to be at the helm of English football in the first place. The powers that be at the FA were blind to that 67 days ago. They are all too aware now.