'Crystal Palace are playing worse under Allardyce' says fan
It may not happen at Liverpool tomorrow afternoon, but if his Crystal Palace players get those three big points between now and May 13 the manager who has never been relegated will almost certainly have completed his latest great escape.
And with that will come with a Lottery-style payout that could top more than £6million in less than 12 months!
Chairman Steve Parish, who gave Allardyce a two and a half year contract worth more than £5million when he took over before Christmas, is understood to have promised his Houdini boss a £2million bonus to keep Palace in the Premier League.
Add that to the £3.5million wages and survival bonus he received from Sunderland last year, plus the £1million pay-off the Football Association gave him after 67 days and one match managing England, and you can see why Sam is smiling all the way to the bank.
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Sam Allardyce will receive a £2million bonus if he keeps Palace in the top flight
At the moment Palace have 35 points, but with home games against Spurs and Burnley to come over the next six days there is an air of optimism around Selhurst Park.
As the manager says: "Thirty eight points have been enough for 10 years or more and we have an opportunity to get there and beyond it. It's a big week for us.
"We want to take the pressure of ourselves this week because if we still need a win at the end of it that it heaps the pressure back on us.
"We want to get an many points as we can, and I think we're capable of getting the points we need this week because of what we have done in the last six games."
Allardyce admits he was quietly confident of another survival success after taking over from Alan Pardew last Christmas Eve.
"As I said to the players I knew there would be a winning streak, but I didn't think it would be as good as the one we have had. I thought maybe it would take me until March to get it right.
"But once I got in with the players at Christmas and the transfer market was shut I knew that was us, and who we were to fight until the end of the season.
"Then things started to turn around and in terms of form this run has actually got us at the top of the league.
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Allardyce has made it clear he wants to buy Mamadou Sakho
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"But we are still not safe so it just shows that even after six wins out of nine it shows how difficult it has been to get out of the bottom three."
Even so, Allardyce is still hoping to spend some more of his chairman's money to sign defender Mamadou Sakho who has been a huge success since joining on loan from Liverpool.
"If we stay in the Premier League we will try our best to sign him," Allardyce revealed. "Bu he may not want to stay.
"Mama has created a market for himself, if not in the Premier League in Europe. Clubs will have monitored his performances with us and he has a big decision to make."
Sakho is not eligible to play at Liverpool, but Allardayce added: "We have managed without James Tomkins and Scott Dann, so let's see how we can manage without Mama."
