Sam Allardyce’s spell at Crystal Palace has been a forgettable one so far. The defeat to Everton pretty much summed up Crystal Palace as a whole; they have failed to perform as a unit in the attack despite some talented players and their defence simply doesn’t have the quality to shut teams out.
It’s going to be a busy last week of the January transfer window for Palace as Big Sam is likely to add a few fresh faces to ensure the team gets the stability required to avoid any last minute drama and secure a safe survival. He did a brilliant job at Sunderland last January and the Palace fans will hope that he can repeat that for the Eagles.
Offensive reinforcements aren’t the priority right now and unsurprisingly, the club have been linked with quite a few defensive minded midfielders, full-backs and centre-backs. Jeffrey Schlupp will add a lot of value to the team once he is up to full match fitness and so could Yann M’Vila, who is being linked with a move to Selhurst Park according to reports.
It’ll take as much as £11m to trigger M’Vila’s release clause and that’s not too much of an asking price for a player of his calibre. M’Vila’s spell at Sunderland was a fruitful one for the Black Cats as he played a key role in their survival. In fact, it was Allardyce who got the best out of him in the final few months and he was close to joining on a permanent move only for the deal to fall through, to the Mackems’ disgust.
A pretty tough tackling midfielder, M’Vila’s strengths are undoubtedly his ability to intercept passes in the middle and set his team on the counter. A well-built midfielder, he’s a runaway train while bursting forward and could complement the fleet-footed wingers that Palace possess. Allardyce can base the whole counter-attacking setup with the Frenchman in the midfield.
Having played in the Premier League and worked under Allardyce, he could have a minimal acclimatisation time at Selhurst Park and the deal will have very little downside. He is still 26 and you could argue that his peak years are still ahead of him. He could potentially have a greater resale value or stay with the club for more years to come and be part of a stable project that Allardyce usually builds, regardless of the style of football.
