England Receive 'Our Journey Has Begun' Postcards from Sam Allardyce After Exit

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It has not been a good week for the Football Association after it was forced to let Sam Allardyce go as England manager and allegations were made about widespread corruption in the game it governs and safeguards.  

But the governing body has been left further embarrassed after motivational postcards signed by the now-former England boss Allardyce were received by Three Lions players on Thursday, two days after the manager left his post.

The message on the cards read: "Our Journey Has Begun," a cruel irony for Allardyce given that his England journey ended after just 67 days when he was forced to step down as manager after being caught up in a Telegraph sting. 

Bleacher Report UK provided an image of the postcard in full:

According to John Cross in the Mirror, the postmark on the missives showed they were sent out on Tuesday, the same day that Allardyce, 61, left by mutual consent after just one match in charge—September's 1-0 FIFA World Cup qualifying win against Slovakia. 

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He was set to take charge of his second match on Oct. 8, when England play Malta at Wembley Stadium, and his third three days later against Slovenia.

Per Cross, the postcard embarrassment comes after it also emerged the FA has had to scrap 4,000 T-shirts made to be given away at the Malta game with a similar call from Allardyce reading: "The journey starts with us all pulling together."

Instead it will be Gareth Southgate in the dugout at Wembley after the England under-21 boss was installed as interim manager for the next four matches.