Allardyce named as Palace boss

Crystal Palace have appointed former England manager Sam Allardyce as their new manager on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

The former Bolton, Blackburn, Newcastle, West Ham and Sunderland manager agreed terms with Palace chairman Steve Parish after three hours of negotiations at Palace's training ground on Friday afternoon.

The 62-year-old, who relinquished his post as England boss by mutual consent at the end of September, replaces Alan Pardew, who was sacked on Thursday after a run of just one win in 11 Premier League matches.

Allardyce, who will take training on Saturday ahead of the St Stephen's Day visit to Watford, told Sky Sports that his first priority is to shore up a defence that has shipped 32 goals in 17 Premier League matches.

"I've got a very important job in stopping the goals going in at the other end first, to be perfectly honest," Allardyce said.

"Attacking players when you're in possession are fantastic because this season the strengthening in that area by the club and by Alan has brought a lot of flair to the team and I think that has brought quite a few more goals than perhaps they were looking like scoring last season.

"But at the other side of it is when we're not in possession we've just got to stop conceding goals and make sure that those goals we score win us games now. It sounds simple, but it's not that easy and that's what we've got to try and turn around.

"[The target] first and foremost is just to say 'let's stop losing'. That's the object, to try and find the basis of consistency that brings us some results."

Photo (Getty Images/ Dan Mullan)

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