Sam Allardyce has been speaking to talkSPORT about his former club Crystal Palace, and his comments provide cause for concern.
The ex-England manager oversaw 23 games while in charge of the south Londoners, averaging 1.26 points per game while also keeping the Eagles in the Premier League after Alan Pardew looked destined to guide them towards the Championship.
Allardyce was only in charge for five months, having decided to resign after keeping the club in the top-flight.
However, he was in charge for one transfer window and obviously a key figure at Selhurst Park just over two years ago, so he is a knowledgeable man on the subject of Crystal Palace which makes his comments all the more worrying.
What did he say?
When asked by Alan Brazil if Roy Hodgson will have money to spend, Allardyce told talkSPORT: “I wouldn’t have thought, knowing Crystal Palace’s finances, that there would be a huge amount because of the expense of players today.”
Brazil then asked if there would be around £60m, to which Allardyce replied: “No, I don’t think they’ll get that. Not that much, I don’t think so. I think they’re running the football club on the basis of that it’s got to fund itself.”
Very concerning
The Eagles have been a Premier League side for seven-and-a-half years.
They have had Hodgson in charge since September 2017, and have only handed the 72-year-old peanuts since he stepped into the hotseat.
Palace spent less than £5m in the summer, and only signed Cenk Tosun on loan last month.
Before those two windows, only Michy Batshuayi was signed on loan in January 2019, while Cheikhou Kouyate at £9.63m in the summer before that was the only player to cost any kind of a fee – Max Meyer and Vicente Guaita arrived for free.
To add further strength to the argument, Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s departure has added £50m to the coffers, while the Eagles earned over £114m for finishing 12th last season – in that respect, why is the club being run on the basis of funding itself?
Someone’s got to own them: Who do these incredibly unwanted PL records belong to?
Allardyce’s comments truly do provide cause for concern.
In other news, one Crystal Palace fan asked “how can you be so stupid” after hearing an update on Alexander Sorloth…