[drewks]

Most worrying about this situation is that if this arrangement is found to be illegal, we could be fined or worse still deducted points. Something that we can ill afford.

.... but surely we were the ones that 'suffered' with this agreement - although I can see that we DID agree to something that was not allowed.

A thought: why didn't we just PLAY The Snod? Wet Sham couldn't have done a thing about it! To me THAT'S the question we should be asking!

Because if we'd played Snodgrass after Allardyce agreed not to, then West Ham would have spread it far and wide that he broke his word, and Sam's chances of doing any kind of similar deal with any club in future would have gone up in smoke.  And as a man who's been proven to have his fingers in many a pie over the years, I guess he didn't feel like trading that entire method of management away forever for a one-off chance of getting three points that we might have blown even with Snodgrass present.

..... but a bit of basic spin could've made Sam whiter than white : " WH TRIED to tie us down to something that wasn't allowed, so I stuck with what I found out later to be right, and played someone who is now OUR PLAYER"....
After all Wet Ham are surely near the top of the Shady Practices league?