Andrew Fifield On the Premiership: Here's a cautionary tale. Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a young, promising manager. He had cut his teeth in the lower leagues and was now revitalising one of English football's grandest, but sleepiest, clubs.

There were whispers of bigger jobs around the corner; even the shadowy figures who choose the next England manager were rumoured to be monitoring his progress. Life could not get much better. Then, one day, his career fell apart.

A series of botched transfers led to the sack and then came the allegations of serious financial misconduct. The rumours and innuendo were never proven but the damage had been done. A spell at another fallen giant ended disastrously and suddenly John Gregory was damaged goods. It has taken the former Aston Villa manager almost four years to persuade another employer, Queens Park Rangers, to give him a final chance to restore his shattered reputation.

Of all the things Gregory said at his unveiling at Loftus Road last week, one particular point stuck in the mind and, one suspects, his throat.

"There's no doubt that my job prospects were harmed by all the bung stories," he said. "It was annoying because people were being put off me without even properly knowing who I was. It was unfair."

Sam Allardyce and Harry Redknapp would do well to heed those words. Nobody quite knows what the long-term implications of last week's Panorama investigation into football corruption will be. There has been talk of mass managerial culls and sweeping reforms to the way in which agents are paid, although given the English Football Association's past record, it is surely more likely the worst punishment any alleged wrongdoer will face is a slap on the wrist.

No action was ever taken against Gregory, despite Villa asking the FA to investigate 20 transfers made during his four-year spell in charge. The same applied to Brian Clough, who was accused by Alan Sugar of "liking a bung". Maybe the charges were too difficult to prove; maybe there was nothing to prove.

Either way, the only manager to ever be convicted was George Graham, and he effectively tied the noose around his own neck by admitting to taking a bribe in 1992.

One thing, however, is certain. The reputations of Allardyce and Redknapp - the Premiership managers most heavily implicated by the BBC's investigation - will never truly recover. However much the pair protest their innocence and despite the fact the programme's evidence, particularly against Redknapp, is flimsy at best, the mud will stick. As Gregory pointed out, "There are people in the Panorama programme who have already been hung in the eyes of the footballing public." Few would disagree, but this summary form of vigilante justice is one of the most glaring travesties of the sordid bungs scandal. It is one thing for convicted cheats to be ostracised from a sport which must be seen, if it is to retain any credibility in the eyes of those who pay such vast sums to watch it, to be clean but quite another for respected and successful managers to be cast into the wilderness on the basis of hearsay and vague, third-party claims.

The lives of Redknapp and Allardyce are sure to be horribly uncomfortable for the foreseeable future. Fans can be brutally unforgiving, although the atmosphere for tonight's meeting between the two managers - in a game which has been dubbed the "Battle of the Bungs" - promises to be relatively tame. After all, the Fratton Park faithful can hardly berate Allardyce when their own leader has been smeared with the same brush.

But managers can live with those brickbats. Dealing with personal insults, however unpalatable, is part of the football coach's job description. What will be harder to stomach for men of the ilk of Allardyce and Redknapp are the accusing looks and muttered asides of their peers.

In public, at least, managers have been putting on their best united front. English football, they claim, is as clean as it gets and most have blanched at the very notion of having been even offered a stuffed brown envelope. The closest any Premiership manager has come in the past week to admitting the system is bent was Fulham's Chris Coleman. His bombshell? The football world is "murky". Hardly headline news.

But how understanding will the sheepskin union be behind closed doors? Managers may stick up for their own in the media, but in private there are bound to be doubters.

From now on, pre-kick-off handshakes and post-match drinks will be endured rather than enjoyed. Redknapp and Allardyce may be completely innocent, and unless they are found otherwise, that is exactly the way it should be. But for many, they have already been convicted.