FAST EXIT: Sam Allardyce speaking to journalists outside his home in Durham, north-east England, on Thursday. The manager was sacked by Newcastle a day earlier, after eight months in charge. -- PHOTO: AP

Sam Allardyce jilts Bolton Wanderers in the summer.

He is then sacked in the New Year, with nothing more than £4-6 million (S$11-17m) compensation for his failure to impress Newcastle that he could be the first man in 80 years to win them the title.

Poor Sam, from the bully of Bolton to the butt of Newcastle in eight months. He is the eighth manager to leave his post in the 20-club EPL this season, and it is only halfway through.

'Informed sources' say that Harry Redknapp will now jet up to Newcastle to become the highest-paid manager in English football - after Jose Mourinho, who is still sitting on his pile of severance pay from Chelsea.

Harry works the British media so well that, whenever there is a vacancy - from the England job to The Toon - he is guaranteed reams of newsprint.

This time, there is an inner connection.

Mike Ashley, the self-made billionaire sports retailer who bought Newcastle lock, stock and barrel last May, is the opposite to Redknapp. He never talks to the press.

Paul Kemsley, Ashley's and Redknapp's friend, does.

Kemsley is a former Tottenham director who once shared ownership of a racehorse, Sunshine Rays, with Redknapp. The pair, as they say, keep in touch.

And, while few in the world could get in touch with the secretive Ashley, Kemsley had his number in Hong Kong, where the Newcastle owner was conducting business while his lawyer who runs the club was sacking Allardyce.

Kemsley says the quick-fire love affair between Ashley and Newcastle has only just begun.

He reckons that the entrepreneur, who might yet fly in to attend today's match at Old Trafford in his familiar replica team shirt, has spent double the £134 million to buy the club last May - and is itching to spend more in the January window.

Hence, the rush to pay off Allardyce. The paymaster wants his own man spending his money.

Nobody is better at wheeling and dealing than Redknapp. He did it at West Ham, at Southampton and most spectacularly at Portsmouth, where he turned the club around from relegation fodder to their highest position in 52 years by trading.

He told the media on Thursday the same as he told the fraud squad investigating a dodgy transfer dealing a couple of months ago: He knew nothing about the rumours, it had nothing to do with him.

The bookmakers nevertheless had him odds-on to be the Newcastle manager within a week, ahead of Alan Shearer, the prodigal son who banged in all those goals for the Magpies.

Also prominent on the list are Mark Hughes, Martin Jol, Mourinho and, a blast from Newcastle's past, the messianic Kevin Keegan.

Some of those are touted by their agents.

And just out of coincidence, Steve McClaren, back from holiday splashing a little of his pay-off after being sacked by the FA, popped up at Newcastle's last game and made himself available for interviews because a man's got to work.

The problem is that McClaren's deadly-dull style, on and off the pitch, is the very last thing the dreamers around St James' Park want.

They didn't want Big Sam's thumping, brutal, mindless long ball rubbish either. They are raised on 'real' football, the ball passed from man to man.

Appropriately enough, so is Redknapp.

He played for West Ham when Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters were World Cup stars.

He was manager there when the Hammers' youth academy nurtured Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole.

And he is the father of Jamie, who played for two of his dad's clubs and also Spurs and Liverpool before injury terminated his career.

Jamie now is a bright and personable front man on Sky television and writes a column in The Daily Mail.

The paper pointed out yesterday that, though Harry would be loath to leave his fantastic home on the south coast, the breakfast flight from there could land him in Newcastle by 8.05am - in time for training.

The word is that, if that is what it takes to lure Redknapp to the north-east, Ashley would put a private jet at his disposal.

And there is the little matter of a four-year contract worth £5 million annually.

One question. If Harry is in the air, who walks the bulldogs, Rosie and Buster, along the southern coast in the early mornings?

Truly, a dog's life in EPL management.

By lunchtime yesterday, Redknapp and his Portsmouth directors were rushing to avoid the waiting media.

The manager was chasing the money and, as we all know, money is the bottomline in the EPL.

stsports@sph.com.sg