Losing England job darkest phase of career: Allardyce

Just-appointed Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce has admitted that losing the England job was the lowest point of his career.

As England manager, Allardyce's stay was short-lived as he was booted out just 67 days into the role after making ill-advised comments while in conversation with undercover reporters in a newspaper sting.

The 62-year-old, who replaced Alan Pardew as manager of struggling English Premier League (EPL) side Crystal Palace recently, said he found the media reaction in the immediate aftermath of being sacked hard to handle.

"The first four weeks was something that was one of the darkest moments in my career, certainly the early reaction, which was a bit hysterical to say the least, looking back on it," Allardyce was quoted as saying by the Guardian on Sunday.

"I'm talking about me and my wife and my family, we all had to deal with that problem - my children, my grandchildren at school. But eventually time passes by, you overcome those adversities and you move on. Moving on for me is taking this job," he added.

Palace have struggled during the ongoing season, losing 10 of their 17 matches to be at the 17th place on the 20-team EPL table with a mere 15 points.

Palace are just one point above the relegation zone having won only once in their past 11 matches.

Allardyce admitted that bringing about a change in the club's fortunes will be difficult, but was confident of coming out with flying colours.

The experienced manager asserted that the current assignment will be easier than his stint with Sunderland with whom he warded off relegation in the 2015-2016 season.

"You've got to do it, it's part of the quick process to try to turn around a difficult situation at the moment," he said.

"It's not as difficult as the position Sunderland were in, I don't think."

--IANS

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