THERE will be chants of Sam, Sam the dirty man from opposition fans at St James' Park if the publication of Lord Stevens' latest findings further implicates Mr Allardyce in the bungs business.

As observed here last week, there is a certain amount of hypocrisy in appointing Big Sam as boss after sacking Kevin Bond as assistant manager so swiftly after Panorama's bungs investigation. Bond has filed a claim for £350,000 against Newcastle for wrongful dismissal and, not surprisingly, his lawyers are asking why the club have appointed Allardyce.

Newcastle's chairman Freddy Shepherd is unlikely to emerge from this smelling any more strongly of roses than he did from his hilarious appearance on You Tube last week. For a man who has been embarrassed by being caught in a sting before, he showed remarkably little restraint in his use of industrial language.

He was filmed by Liverpool fans wanting to know if they could have Michael Owen back for £9m, and the question of why anyone would sign a player for £16m with a £9m get-out clause in his contract casts further doubt on Shepherd's credibility.

He appears to be as big a buffoon as John Prescott, yet neither can be as daft as he seems to have reached such pinnacles. Shepherd's track record in appointing managers is not impressive but, the controversy aside, he could have done a lot worse than Allardyce, who went close with Bolton to achieving his ambition of breaking into the top four who so dominate English football.

Newcastle fans must now pray that any ugly business quickly fades away and Sam really is the man to lift their fortunes. Any other outcome and the calls for Shepherd's head will be too clamorous for him to ignore.

GENERALLY I believe that sport should be left to police itself, but while I stand by that in the West Ham controversy I applaud the Australian government's decision to ban their cricketers from touring Zimbabwe.

Out own pussy-footing politicians declined to get involved in this issue, putting the players in a moral dilemma. Obviously the whole cricketing world wants to see the talented players of Zimbabwe given every opportunity to improve their standing, and they deserve great sympathy for their plight. But under Mugabe's abhorrent regime it is unacceptable for any sporting team to go there.

As for West Ham, it is sad that a club of their standing should become involved in transfer irregularities, but the game is awash with murky dealings and the Premier League's ruling on this one should stand.

Looking at the wider picture, most of the Gang of Four who are challenging it will always struggle to stay in the Premier League. Take away the managers who have got them there, which has already happened in two cases, and they will struggle even more.

Sheffield United's England players do not trip off the tongue quite as easily as those produced by West Ham, going back to Moore, Hurst and Peters through to recent times when they have had to sell the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick to that other Gang of Four at the top.

DOMINANT sporting individuals intially attract enormous attention in this celebrity-obsessed culture, but then we become bored with them, which is why it's no bad thing to see Tiger Woods and Roger Federer struggling.

They'll be back and I fully expect Tiger to win this year's Open at Carnoustie because he will work out a strategy to deal with the fierce links which reduced Sergio Garcia to tears eight years ago.

Meanwhile the world of motor racing has emerged from the torpor imposed by Michael Schumacher's dominance through finding its own answer to Tiger in Lewis Hamilton.

Eddie Jordan could have been talking of Woods a few years ago when he said of Hamilton: "He's black, he's attractive, and he's extraordinarily nice, well-mannered, polite, well brought up, a hugely attractive young man."

He added a guarantee that Hamilton is not like that in a car, meaning he's just as committed and fiercely competitive as Tiger is on a golf course. We're going to hear an awful lot more of young Lewis.