Sam Allardyce: What did he say, and how bad is it?

We take a look at what he said, topic by topic - and assess how bad it looks.

[When asked 'Is that third party ownership a problem though?'] "It’s not a problem. [Several agents' names beeped out] have been doing it for years... It’s not a problem. We got [Enner] Valencia in [at West Ham]. He was third-party owned when we bought him from Mexico... [Some agents are] doing it all the time... You can still get around it. I mean obviously the big money’s here.

"Because of the size of the contracts now, the contract'll be worth thirty, forty million at ten per cent and you get, you get, you've done a deal with the agent where you're getting five per cent of the agent's fee. Which is massive for doing about two hours work, like."

How bad is it? Allardyce didn't break any rules with what he said, but the fact that he, as England manager, was prepared to discuss how those rules could be circumvented - essentially by the third party taking a cut of the agent's fee - is extremely awkward, and at the heart of the threat to his job. He also branded the rules to protect the welfare of young players as "ridiculous", something which the FA will find deeply troubling.

"It’s not only the England manager. It’s the beauty of being a Premier League manager all them years like me… I have more pictures taken over there than I have here... Keynote speaking, that’s what I’d be doing, keynote speaking. I’m a keynote speaker...

"In principle it’s OK. The fact that I’m going to be turning up on four occasions throughout the year, doing meet and greets and nothing else, so it’s not, nobody’s going to come back to me and say 'I met Sam and I invested in this, this portfolio, and he told me to go and buy these young players, and that young player’, and that’s, you know. So they can’t blame me, do you know what I mean?...

"Your guys set the agenda out of what it would look like. Me flying out on a day, landing in Hong Kong or Singapore, staying in this hotel, meeting these people, doing that keynote speech, travelling back either two days later or one day later. If I get there first day, I don’t want to fly in and fly out.”

How bad is it? Allardyce was careful here to avoid stepping over the line, and said that he would need clearance from the FA - but the fact that he was happy to discuss what looks distinctly like a potential conflict of interest, before he'd even taken charge of his first match as England manager, is quite frankly gobsmacking.

"Just know, it’s just delivering, for you, it’s just delivering value for money… they’ve got to enjoy the time they’ve had, enjoy the conversation. Not just the keynote speech but also in the bar after. I don’t come in like a lot of them, come in, right bang, you’re off. 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.”

How bad is it? Well, kudos to Sam for making sure that nobody leaves disappointed... but lining his pockets before his first match, despite a £3m-a-year pay packet as England manager? It smacks of greed.

"[When asked if the firm could bill him as a 'strategic adviser'] Not on the football side, no. If you were buying players, that would be no. Because I couldn’t associate my name with any of that... That loose basis that we talked about [just being a keynote speaker] will be OK – it’ll be all right. I’m not putting myself in a position that the papers can investigate, cause me a problem, or the FA could."

How bad is it? His caution about not wanting to do anything that might spark an investigation is admirable - and in another filmed interview, he openly deplored a suggestion that players, CEOs or managers could be bribed. He was extremely firm in his rejection of bung culture and the suggestion of anything illegal - despite what one imagines must have been pretty persistent probing from the Telegraph team.

"He'd send them all to sleep, Roy. Woy. He hasn't got the personality for it... I think maybe he was too indecisive. Cast a bit of anxiety over to the players maybe. I mean prior to the Iceland game, he won all 10 qualifiers. We'd drawn with Russia (in the first game), we should have won. We beat Wales, and that was our worst performance. We drew with Slovakia, and we only had to draw with Iceland to get through... he just collapsed."

How bad is it? It's not nice - particularly (very briefly) mocking Hodgson's speech impediment - but in truth this is nothing more than pub chat, fair comment on his predecessor.

The most worrying element seems to be that Allardyce was under the impression that a draw in a last-16 knockout match would have been enough to go through. Do we really have an England manager who doesn't understand how football tournaments work?

"They were arguing for 10 minutes about bringing him on, him and Gary Neville. So Gary was the wrong influence for him. ----ing tell Gary to sit down and shut up, so you can do what you want. You’re the manager, you do what you want, not what they anyone else."

How bad is it? Not bad at all. Actually a shame he didn't give Roy this advice before Euro 2016.

"They [the FA] stupidly spent £870 million on Wembley, so they’re still paying that debt off. They completely rebuilt it. If they’d built it anywhere else, it would have cost about £400 million. They completely floored it and then rebuilt the new stadium which is fabulous, but that sort of debt is not really what you want. Most of the money the FA make[s] will go to the interest on the debt... They’re all about making money aren’t they? You know the FA’s the richest football association in the world? Well, I shouldn’t say that. They’re not the richest at all. What they do is they have the biggest turnover in the world with £325 million.”

How bad is it? Again, less than ideal. But he simply voiced an opinion shared by many within football.

"Can’t play them then. Joe Hart. Jack Wilshere, on the bench for Arsenal. Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench. You can play them, but they’re not playing for the club. When they’re not playing for the club, they’re just short of match practice.”

How bad is it? It won't help Allardyce's standing in the dressing room that he was publicly discussing his players' prospects with strangers, but the content of what he said was totally fine. It'd be far more worrying if Allardyce was wedded to the idea of continuously picking a player who wasn't playing for his club. And indeed Joe Hart clearly agrees: his desire to play, and keep his international spot, was openly the reason for his move to Torino.

"The only one that never turned up [for the Euro 2020 launch] was Prince William. He’s our ambassador for the Football Association, so it would have been nice if he’d have turned up but he obviously had more, much busier things on.... Harry’s a naughty boy. He’s a very naughty boy, very naughty. He shows his bottom and all sorts.”

How bad is it? Highly embarrassing, but not job-threatening. At least, it wouldn't be if it were all he'd said...

Allardyce has shown exceptionally poor judgement in meeting the 'investors', especially so early in his reign, but if the Telegraph were after any discussion or endorsement of underhand dealings they came away disappointed. This is awkward and embarrassing for Allardyce and the FA, but if the episode costs him his job it will be the result of the media firestorm rather than any genuine wrongdoing.