Allardyce onto second-choice transfer targets

Sam Allardyce admits he is having difficulty recruiting players to help with Crystal Palace's Premier League relegation fight and is already seeking out second-choice targets.

Having replaced Alan Pardew just before Christmas, Allardyce has struggled to turn around Palace's struggling fortunes - his only win from seven matches in charge coming at home to former club Bolton Wanderers in an FA Cup third-round replay.

Allardyce's sole signing of the January transfer window thus far has been the capture of Jeffrey Schlupp from Leicester City, reportedly for a fee of £12.5million.

After a 1-0 defeat at home to Everton on Saturday left Palace in the drop zone, Allardyce conceded players are unlikely to be keen to join a relegation scrap, and now it seems he is being forced to lower his sights.

"I've had that many players on my desk the last two weeks, looked at that many reports, watched so many games, that in the end we got them to file all that [list of players] down," he said.

"The ones we've already done that on are not coming now, so we're down to the next level on what's available and who might come.

"We've done a good dozen [approaches] or so, and we've got one [Schlupp].

"We thought we'd have got more but we haven't, so we're on the next dozen or so players we filed down, and will look carefully, to not panic in this moment.

"We're going to have two new players to come back at the end of the Africa Cup of Nations, Bakary Sako and Wilfried Zaha, which will help make a difference."