Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce hits out at Premier League over 'awkward' transfer deadline day fixtures

Unhelpful: Sam Allardyce urged the media to question the Premier League's scheduling
Getty Images
Giuseppe Muro27 January 2017

Sam Allardyce today criticised the Premier League for scheduling a round of matches on transfer deadline day.

The window closes at 11pm on Tuesday on the same night Crystal Palace play away at Bournemouth.

That fixture is one of seven in the Premier League on Tuesday, with Arsenal at home to Watford, Tottenham away at Sunderland and Chelsea away at Liverpool.

Allardyce said: “It makes life more difficult for us all.

“You will have to ask the Premier League why they decided to play a game on the Tuesday when the window closes that day. It is an awkward situation that did not have to happen.

“I would love to here the answer. Because I get a blank when I ask. I have asked why they have done it many times but it is not the first time it has happened. It is a particularly delicate situation and we do not need to have that delicate situation.”

Palace were today completing a £9million move for Sunderland left-back Patrick van Aanholt and Allardyce expects the club will still be finalising their transfer business right up until the deadline.

Crystal Palace's Premier League run-in

1/3

Sunderland had earlier rejected a £7million offer from the Eagles and despite the player’s insistence that he wanted to go, held out for their valuation for a man who joined them from Chelsea for just £1.5million in July 2014 after loan spells at Coventry, Newcastle, Leicester, Wigan and Vitesse Arnhem.

Palace have so far failed to agree personal terms with Arsenal right-back Carl Jenkinson but Allardyce still hopes a deal can be struck.

Allardyce today said Palace have not received bids for Andros Townsend or Yohan Cabaye despite interest from Newcastle and Marseille.

Palace play Manchester City at Selhurst Park in the FA Cup tomorrow.

London Football! Stay on top of all the news and gossip from the January window in our transfer section.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT