PHIL Parkinson has sympathy for Sam Allardyce, claiming his resignation this week could leave an indelible scar on the England job.

The Wanderers boss voiced his support for Big Sam, who was forced to quit after just 67 days in charge of the national team following a sting by the Telegraph newspaper aimed at exposing corruption in football.

Opinion is split within the game as to whether Allardyce’s taped comments to reporters posing as Far East businessmen were serious enough to warrant his removal from the job.

“I feel for Big Sam, I have to be honest,” he told The Bolton News. “He’s got the job of his dreams and lost it in circumstances like that. Some people say he shouldn’t have done what he did but I think it’s quite sad that journalists have to sell newspapers by setting people up.”

One of Parkinson’s closest allies in the game, Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew, is among the front runners backed to take the job full-time.

But the Whites boss believes recent events may make Englishman think twice about the appeal of managing their country.

“Alan could handle the job but I’m not sure he’d want it,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to him but as we speak a lot of English managers are going to be put off because of the scrutiny of your private life.

“Not only that, there’s only a select band of players to choose from. It isn’t a brilliant group at the moment. But if you go back over the last five or six managers, they’ve all had problems being interrogated. I have always been right behind a homegrown manager but after this week I’ve changed, and I’m thinking ‘maybe it’s best they go for a foreign manager’.”

Parkinson does not believe football to be “inherently corrupt” and believes the aftershocks of the story could even extend to the relationship all managers have with outside parties, including agents and the media.

“I’ve been a manager for 12-13 years, and had quite a lot of experience dealing with agents and I’ve seen very little reason to suggest there are deep-rooted problems.

“I think if you examine any business, any industry you might catch people out. Football’s profile means it’s a target and unfortunately these reputations have been damaged.

“You have to be careful what you say to people, simple as that.

“As a manager, at any level, you have a few people who you can speak truthfully to and the rest you tow the party line because you only have to say one word out of place or something slightly controversial and someone turns a phone on, tapes it and you end up in serious trouble.

“Big Sam looked like he was having a couple of glasses of wine and things get said, people loosen up after a few drinks and he’s probably said things he regrets.”

Parkinson has crossed paths with Allardyce plenty of times in his career and believes public opinion on the former Bolton boss could soften in the coming weeks.

“In a month’s time, when people look back, they might just start feeling a bit more on Sam’s side than they are right now,” he said.

“He’s a terrific fella, a larger than life character, and if you hear his interview he’s trusted people he’s known for a lot of years. You trust the credibility of those people because of your friendship.

“I’ve been in Big Sam’s company a few times and he loved to hold court. People love him for that. When I was at Colchester and he was manager of Bolton we stayed at the hotel and he came over and had a drink with all the staff. He was holding court about several topics and our staff were all saying ‘what a bloke’.

“Now had that conversation been taped there were probably things in there which were exclusive to the football inner sanctum, if you like, but that’s Sam. He loves having a chat and talking football.”