NAÏVE, stupid and blinded by his own insatiable greed. Sam Allardyce might not have broken any Football Association regulations when he met a group of undercover journalists posing as a Far Eastern business syndicate, but his actions and comments besmirched everything we have a right to expect from an England manager.

He described the England role as his 'dream position', yet only filled it for 67 days. The FA spent most of yesterday discussing his indiscretions after The Daily Telegraph published the first installment of their revelations, but in the end they came to the correct decision. He had to go.

The manner of his demise is hardly a surprise – even if he and his coterie of hangers-on were taken in by the oldest newspaper sting going. Plenty predicted Allardyce’s ‘dodgy dealings’ would be his downfall; few could have anticipated they would leave him in an untenable position quite so quickly.

Of all the unedifying aspects to Allardyce’s August meeting in a London hotel, by far the most damaging is its timing. The former Sunderland boss hadn’t even met his players when he sat down to discuss a £400,000 deal to provide business advice in the Far East. His mind should have been on Slovakia, instead it was focused on how best to supplement his £3m-a-year income.

“I don’t come in like a lot of them, come in, right bang, you’re off,” Allardyce boasted. “Do you know what I mean? That’s the end of that, done that, I’m off. I’m going to stand at the bar, have a few social drinks.” Is that the man the FA want at the head of their organisation?

Allardyce’s comments over the course of two meetings that lasted around four hours were a mixture of unguarded brags and unpleasant crudities. There was nothing that would demand instant dismissal, although his comments on how best to circumvent third-party ownership regulations stray close to the line, but plenty that leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Mocking Roy Hodgson’s speech impediment, ridiculing the FA’s decision to invest so heavily in the new Wembley, criticising Prince William and Prince Harry. Taken individually, none of the comments amount to very much. Thrown together, they make Allardyce resemble a 1970s club comedian rather than a dynamic football manager capable of leading England to glory at the next World Cup.

It is all so tacky and unseemly, and while there was a need for the FA to move on from the staid inertia of the Hodgson regime, the England job is still supposed to represent something special. Despite all the failings of the last 50 years, it should still attract the best of the best.

Ironically, Allardyce views it in exactly those terms. But while he was publicly proclaiming his pride in his appointment, he was privately calculating how best to make it pay. Even though the England team is at a particularly low ebb, it still deserves more from its figurehead than that.