Newell in bungs revelation yet again

Newell: Looking cheerful as usual

Mike Newell has made headlines with the revelation that freelance corrupt agent (allegedly corrupt at least) Charles Collymore offered him a cut of a player's fee that he tried to negotiate. It is still unclear which player's transfer was involved in this. Although Newell's revelations are once again very brave allegations and will probably see him gain plaudits from sports journalists and football fans across the country, it is unlikely that this will actually do Luton Town any good. Although the fans at least know that there is a very very small chance of Mike Newell being involved in accepting bungs now, the problem is that many agents may not want to work with Newell because of his principles that he has made clear before. Newell is known by many Luton fans to be very suspicious of agents, and as agents unfortunately appear to have a lot of power in football, this is bad news should Luton want to sign anyone. On the other hand, these factors may put off any chairman who wanted Newell as a new manager (with West Brom the next club to be linked to Newell). And if any manager can get the best out of the current players at the club, then it is Newell.

Other people thought to be linked with the bungs scandal besides Collymore are Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce's agent son. A BBC Panorama documentary on BBC1 tonight at 9.00 will show people undercover evidence of the investigation started by Mike Newell's comments last January.