Sam Allardyce’s spell was short but sweet at Crystal Palace.
The 65-year-old moved to Selhurst Park in December of 2016, with the Eagles in lots of trouble at the bottom of the table. However, he was able to steer the side away from the relegation zone, with Palace eventually staying up on the penultimate day of the season.
Despite that, though, he didn’t stay beyond the end of the 2016/17 campaign.
He was given money to spend during the January transfer window in an attempt to keep the side in the top flight, and all three of those recruits from the time are still at the club. Patrick van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic have both proven to be astute pieces of business – van Aanholt is the club’s second top goalscorer this term with three strikes, whilst the latter managed 12 himself last term. Jeffrey Schlupp, meanwhile, has not been as big a success story.
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He cost Palace £12m including bonuses from Leicester City, but he has failed to set the world alight. Despite generally playing as a left midfielder, he has just seven goals and eight assists. So far this term, injuries have blighted him, but he has not been that effective even when he has featured, even if he did score twice in his last three Premier League appearances.
His wages are setting back Palace a pretty penny as well. He currently takes home £56,000 a week, which works out at £2,912,000 a year. Given he has a four-year contract at the club, that means he is costing them £11.7m just in wages. Put the transfer fee on that and he will have cost Roy Hodgson’s side a cool £23.7m
Considering that Wilfried Zaha cost just £6m when he returned to the Eagles from Manchester United, it is hard to argue that Schlupp has been, and is worth, the money they paid.
It can be worrying when, by the age of 27, a player’s best position does not seem to be clear – given he has played in eight roles during his time in football, that appears to be the case with the Ghana international. As Palace move forward, this could be a player worth getting off the wage bill.
Elsewhere, this Crystal Palace target could be part of Steve Parish’s “Wilfried Zaha effect”.