Crystal Palace turns to Allardyce to rescue season

Crystal Palace has wasted no time replacing the fired Alan Pardew, announcing Friday that Sam Allardyce will reprise his familiar role as manager of a club looking to avoid relegation.

Allardyce agreed a two-and-a-half year contract at Selhurst Park, and will put his inherited squad through its paces ahead of the Boxing Day bout at Watford.

Despite boasting a talented, capable squad, the Eagles find themselves just one point above the dreaded drop zone, and will be hoping the veteran boss can turn things around at Selhurst Park - much like he did at Sunderland last season.

Related: Crystal Palace sacks Alan Pardew

"We are delighted to be able to make an appointment so quickly and fortunate that someone of Sam’s calibre and experience was available," club chairman Steve Parish said of the hire.

Allardyce, 62, has been out of the spotlight since September, when, after a mere 67 days as manager of England, he was relieved of his duties; his position became untenable after he was caught on camera as part of a newspaper sting investigating corruption in football.

But chairman Steve Parish, previously a staunch supporter of the expansive football Pardew championed, will now put survival at the top of his agenda and opt for the Allardyce approach - traditionally of a more meat-and-potatoes variety.

The personnel would appear to be in place for Allardyce to adopt more direct tactics. Christian Benteke is a ready-made focal point in attack, able to catch balls on his chest and power headers with his considerable neck muscles and height, and Andros Townsend and Yohan Cabaye can produce deliveries of unerring accuracy.

That would be an approach similar to the one Allardyce honed at Bolton Wanderers in the noughties, when he guided the unfashionable Greater Manchester side to European football with brawn in its attack and flair in the midfield.

While continental adventures may be a stretch for 17th-placed Palace, Allardyce has a deserved reputation of dragging clubs out of the relegation mire through his heroics during Bolton's early Premier League days, and spells at Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United, and Sunderland.

Allardyce is also a Premier League pioneer in using data analysis to assess his teams, hence the percentage play of lumping balls into the danger areas, an advocate of a widespread scouting structure, and vastly improved the training practices at Sunderland.

The chequered history of bung allegations and newspaper stings aside, Palace has acquired a manager who's expert at taking over a club in its predicament.