‘I’ve never said this’: Sam Allardyce shares why he actually left Crystal Palace

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Speaking on Kammy and Ben’s Proper Football Podcast, Sam Allardyce has shared the real reason why he had to leave Crystal Palace in 2017.

Allardyce had a fantastic six-month run in charge of Palace, saving the Eagles from relegation and building a defensively sound side that were an incredibly tough nut to crack.

However, despite signing a two-and-a-half-year contract in late 2016, Allardyce unexpectedly quit the club in 2017, claiming in a statement that he had no intention of taking up another job.

“I have no ambitions to take another job,” Allardyce said in a statement.

“This is the right time for me. I simply want to be able to enjoy all the things you cannot really enjoy with the 24/7 demands of managing any football club, let alone one in the Premier League.”

However, Allardyce has now, sadly, admitted that he actually left Palace at the time due to a health scare, which, fortunately, wasn’t as serious as he first feared.

What’s been said?

Allardyce opened up on his departure from Palace.

“I’ve never said this before but I’ll say it now. I left because I wasn’t too well, I wasn’t too well at the time and I never told anyone but I told Steve at the end of the season that I just needed to. I didn’t have what I thought I had, put it that way, that’s all I’ll say about it, but Steve understood why I needed to focus on me. I wanted to stay but it was about me and getting myself better again which I did with the help of a few specialists,” Allardyce said.

Palace hero

Allardyce may have only spent a few months as Palace manager, but he did enough in that time to cement himself as something of a hero at Selhurst Park.

He was brought in to help stave off relegation and he did just that, and while he wasn’t able to build his project, he still did what was asked of him.

Luckily, Allardyce’s health issue wasn’t as serious as he first thought and he’s since been the manager of Everton and West Brom – and who knows? Perhaps Big Sam still has one more job and one more great escape in him.