Crystal Palace hire Sam Allardyce to replace Alan Pardew

Just months after being fired as the manager of the England international team in the wake of a surprising controversy, Sam Allardyce is employed once more. He’s been hired by Crystal Palace to replace Alan Pardew just one day after his firing, and now Allardyce has to dig into figuring out how he can save Palace from relegation.

This isn’t Allardyce’s first relegation fight — in fact, just last season he managed to salvage the season for Sunderland after getting hired by them in October. That success saw him hired by England after they parted ways with Roy Hodgson following a disappointing Euro 2016, but Allardyce’s tenure lasted just 67 days and one match thanks to being at the heart of a scandal. Allardyce was recorded by journalists posing as agents trying to teach them how to circumvent FA regulations for transfers and third-party ownership. It didn’t take long at all for he and England to part ways “by mutual consent.”

Controversy aside, though, Allardyce looks like a solid hire for Crystal Palace. Despite standing just one point above the relegation zone, Palace have a solid squad, and one that appears well-suited to the styles that Allardyce generally employs. It’s easy to look at the likes of Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend, James McCarthy, Yohan Cabaye, and Bakary Sako and see them flourishing under his watch.

Still, it’s going to be a difficult battle to get Palace playing well again. They’ve been wildly inconsistent this season, and while much of that was down to bizarre tactical and personnel decisions from Pardew on a regular basis, events have beaten down the team’s confidence so much that they haven’t looked like much of a threat of late.

Allardyce will need to get things turned around quickly for his new team to stand a chance of survival. It’s going to be interesting to see just what he does to get them moving in the right direction again.