Shepherd The Only One To Push The Button

But the 52-year-old manager denied any involvement and insisted he would fight the allegations.

Allardyce said at the time: "I am denying all of the allegations against me. The matter is now in my lawyers' hands and will be resolved by due process.

"I have instructed my lawyers to take appropriate action."

Allardyce then launched a passionate defence of his reputation in an exclusive interview with The Bolton News on October 13, in which he accused the TV programme of setting out to destroy him.

Allardyce: "I have never accepted anything. I am not hiding away and I never would. That's why I have decided to talk about it now for the first time.

"It was a dark day in my life and it's been a disappointing time in my career, but I will go through the process - obviously the FA and the Quest inquiries - and everybody will know that everything's OK.

"The whole programme was based on deceit and innuendo and set out to destroy me. Any muck that is thrown can stick and, at the end of it all, there will still be doubters.

"That's disappointing, but the main disappointment is having to defend a reputation I have built up over a lifetime. Unfortunately, I have to."

Bond Hits Back At Shepherd

The sacking of Glenn Roeder's No 2 Kevin Bond defied belief. The Newcastle chairman gave the man the boot without even telling Roeder, and the then Toon boss heard it from reporters at the club's training ground.

And now Newcastle's ex-assistant boss Kevin Bond has branded club chairman Shepherd a hypocrite for appointing Sam Allardyce as manager.

Bond was mentioned very briefly in the BBC's high-profile Panorama investigation into football bungs last September, while Allardyce took centre stage. The then Bolton boss was even accused by his son!

Bond, who was at Portsmouth when the segment of the programme featuring him was made, is now suing both the BBC for libel and Newcastle for breach of contract.

Allardyce, then Bolton manager, was implicated in the programme but also cleared following the subsequent Stevens inquiry.

Bond: "Morals and integrity are things people stand on when it suits them and they go right out of the window when it doesn't.

"It was easy for Freddy to take the moral high ground with me, it suits him to take the opposite stance with Sam because he believes - as I do - that Sam is the man for Newcastle United.

"It is the biggest U-turn in someone's stance on a matter that I have ever come across.

"The hypocrisy of Freddy appointing Sam is staggering.

"In no way am I criticising Sam because I have nothing but admiration and respect for him, and I believe he is the right man for the job."

Meanwhile Shepherd is convinced Newcastle would now be a top five club had he landed Sam Allardyce as manager three years ago.

Shepherd: "I think we would have been in the top five now if Sam had come then. We would have been in a lot better position than we are now.

"In 2004, because of the conditions and the clauses in his contract with Bolton, it was more or less impossible for him to leave.

"But I never stopped trying. He is the type of guy who has Newcastle manager written all over him."