Report: Allardyce quitting after saving Crystal Palace from the drop
The gun for hire is back in its holster.
Sam Allardyce has sensationally told Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish that he's leaving the club merely nine days after securing the Eagles' Premier League status, reports The Daily Mail's Matt Lawton.
His decision comes after a meeting Tuesday with Parish, where the Dudley native came to the conclusion that their ambitions don't align. It's understood he's already cleared his desk, and it's unlikely he'll change his mind amid expected efforts from the Palace board for him to do so.
Allardyce's job before taking the role at Selhurst Park in December was in charge of England, but he was given the boot after just 67 days and one game. He shamefacedly departed when he was found to be giving tips of how to circumnavigate the Football Association and FIFA's rules on third-party ownership in a newspaper sting.
Before that blow, "Big Sam" developed a reputation for turning around the fortunes of bewildered clubs and staving off the threat of relegation with smart acquisitions in the transfer market and pragmatic on-field tactics. He's only been demoted with Notts County in 1997, despite overseeing a host of modest outfits over his career.
At Crystal Palace, he gradually improved the club's results with a busy January window highlighted by the arrivals of Mamadou Sakho and Luka Milivojevic, and the liberation of Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha when flanking the bulky yet ruthless frontman Christian Benteke.
Improbable wins were recorded against Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool in April, and the 4-0 bashing of Hull City in the penultimate match of the season ensured Palace would be in the top flight for the 2017-18 term.
Allardyce previously achieved similar feats in jobs at Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.
Whether Allardyce's eyes are on another Premier League gig is unknown. There's a vacancy at Watford following the ousting of Walter Mazzarri, while questions linger around the future of Slaven Bilic at West Ham United - a club Allardyce guided between 2011-2015.