Looking to battle their way out of the relegation scrap, Crystal Palace and Sam Allardyce want to add strength to their shaky defence this month.
A player on their radar is Mamadou Sakho. The France international has been frozen out of the first-team squad this season after being sent home by Jurgen Klopp from Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the USA because of attitude issues.
As a result, Sakho is free to leave Anfield during the January transfer window either on loan or on a permanent basis. Any loan deal would require Palace to cover his £80,000-a-week wages as well as paying a sizeable loan fee.
According to the Daily Mail, the Eagles have approached Liverpool to take Sakho on loan but face competition from West Brom, Southampton, Lille, Galatasaray and Sevilla for the former PSG centre-back.
Crystal Palace spent £10m in the summer to sign James Tomkins from West Ham, a defender then manager Alan Pardew knew well and a player Sam Allardyce spent four years working with at Upton Park.
Big Sam would like to bring in another quality defender to partner with Tomkins and Scott Dann in the Palace defence but face some serious competition to land Sakho this month.
