SAM ALLARDYCE'S behaviour has made England the laughing stock of world football, former skippers Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand claimed.
The 61-year-old saw his contract terminated by mutual agreement with the English Football Association on Tuesday, after barely two months as manager and just one match in charge. Former Bolton, Newcastle and Sunderland boss Allardyce was caught out by undercover Daily Telegraph reporters, making a host of controversial remarks including expressing his views on the outlawed practice of third-party ownership, suggesting there was a way to "get around it".
FA chairman Greg Clarke and chief executive Martin Glenn decided after a day of talks that Allardyce could not stay on and the manager agreed he had to cut short his dream job, destroying his hopes of leading the team to the 2018 World Cup.
Shearer said: "I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm staggered at the misjudgement from a guy who openly admitted that it was his dream job. I'm angry at the whole situation.
"I didn't think England could stoop any lower from what happened in the summer in the Euros [losing] to Iceland. And now, here we are. We're a laughing stock of world football."
Shearer added: "He wanted that job so badly, so to make such a huge error so early into the job, then you can't look at anyone else but yourself."
Allardyce appeared willing to pursue a £400,000 deal to address investors in the Far East, when he spoke to the undercover reporters who were posing as businessmen. Asked if there is a problem with money in the English game, Shearer added: "Yeah, we've got a problem. It's greed, isn't it?
"There's so much money in our game and it staggers that people demand and ask for more - that's the situation we're in, I'm afraid. It's not a nice situation. We have to handle that now, we have to deal with it in the right way. We have to be able to accept people laughing at us. As I said, I think England are now a laughing stock."
England U21 boss Gareth Southgate takes over the seniors for a four-game run as the FA considers who should take the job on a full-time basis. Ferdinand said: "I think the rest of the football community around the world will just be laughing at us. It just feels like it's become a comical event, the England manager's role.
"This is the man who was probably the most vocal about getting the England job, the most passionate, outwardly, about getting the England job, but unfortunately he's backed the FA into a corner and they've had to act because of his actions.
"Like we've said before, naivety seems to be the word that's coming up more than anything and it's just disappointing for English football more than anything."
