Diamonds and Jewels – doubting Big Sam and Paul

Very recently, shortly after resigning from Bolton, Sam Allardyce announced one of the reasons he was leaving was to spend time with his family. Now, in less time than it would take to have a decent family holiday in Blackpool, he is apparently about to join Newcastle “to win some trophies” (?) …Today we have Paul Jewel making similar announcements about his future after resigning from Wigan, swearing “on his childrens’ lives” that he has not been “tapped-up” by another club (Man City perhaps?)…
Sam used to be a man of great integrity, a “diamond geezer” some might have said, and a hell of a beer drinker, but I have had the feeling that his “working-class credibility” has been overplayed in the past couple of years and he’s now just as much a “star/celebrity” as the vast majority of the demi-god Premiership managers – too bad, but perhaps inevitable…As for Jewel, I used to like him too, then a couple of seasons ago when Wigan were knocked out of the League Cup he had a ridiculous, unjustified moan about the referee and opposition, and claimed that Wigan had “bigger fish to fry” – really, Paul?…Soon afterwards he signed Emile Heskey – clearly he was losing it…
Then on my recent trip home, I attended the Villa v Wigan match on Easter Monday at Villa Park. I sat with my Dad about fifteen rows back behind the dugouts in the seats we’ve had for many years in the Trinity Road stand…Early in the second half with Wigan down to ten men, defending the 1-1 draw desperately, kicking lumps of the Villa lads while doing so, Jewel was getting very agitated. At one point Gareth Barry was tackled on the touchline by some nameless Wigan player and the ball flew into the crowd right at me…
With a Shiltonesque move I caught the ball and immediately threw it back towards Barry, who was to take the ensuing throw-in. With the ball in the air, Jewel decided to jump up and berate the linesman for awarding the throw to us – the correct decision actually. Unfortunately his timing was not good and he was hit in the back by the ball I had thrown. He turned and grabbed the ball, making as if he was going to throw it back at me or whoever he believed had thrown it at him. He screamed,”you f*ckin’ wankers”, in his posh Scouse accent. Obviously about two hundred nearby Villa fans responded – they were particularly interested in when the portly Jewel had last eaten a salad. Play was briefly held up as he was calmed down by the fourth official. A Villa steward, who had seen exactly what had happened, was on the scene in a flash and told everyone to calm down and acknowledged my comment that it was unintentional. The steward knew it was an accident…I couldn’t possibly comment further…
Claret & Light Blue and hoping Jewel gets the Bradford City job, after spending time with his family of course…