SAM ALLARDYCE will today face Sunderland for the first time since leaving to take over England in the summer, with his successor admitting he inherited plenty of problems left behind.

Allardyce and David Moyes, long-term friends throughout their managerial careers, will be in opposite dug-outs in a battle between two teams occupying a relegation places at Selhurst Park this afternoon.

Sunderland would have had Allardyce at the helm had his country not come calling after England’s awful Euro 2016 campaign – and who knows how preparations for this season would have gone then?

Instead Moyes had to takeover in July, with pre-season in full swing and a lack of time to move on the transfer front. He still thinks that was the main reason for Sunderland’s poor start.

Moyes said: “Look, he got the job he’d always hoped for, the position with England he’d always wished he’d get - I’m not sure he would have left Sunderland if it wasn’t for that. We all know the story behind that.

“Sometimes when you fall off the bike a little bit the best thing is to get back on quickly and Sam’s done that with Palace. I’m sure he’ll do a good job.

“I did speak to Sam beforehand. He told me about the club. I’d spoken to him briefly when all the England stuff was happening. He said it was a good club. I knew there were going to be some difficulties, but Sam spoke really well about it.”

He added: “I think the England situation hampered us. You’ve got to remember there were no players signed before I joined, so it gave you the feeling Big Sam was having difficulty, either getting them or having the right money.

“By the time I got here, they were well into pre-season and very little had been done. It didn’t help Sunderland that period. It was about a month, I think, where it probably disrupted us, because if you’re Sunderland you didn’t know what your manager was doing.

“You’d have liked to have come in earlier and started your work earlier, but sometimes there’s very few signings that get done straight away. The big clubs do it sooner, but the lower down you go the harder it is to make those signings earlier.”

Allardyce enjoyed the final few months of the season at Sunderland, culminating in him keeping Premier League football on Wearside and celebrating with a sell-out crowd after defeating Everton to achieve the target he was set.

Moyes, who has no fresh injury worries ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace, said: “He never warned me off it. He said there were some difficulties, but he didn’t warn me off it.

“I think because he knows so much about the group, he knows about the players - near enough as well as me, from the time he was here.

“But he’s got his own team that he’s still trying to find out a little bit about, still trying to get to know his team. It’s always important that you find out about his own players.

“We’ve been to a couple of dinners and whatnot since I took over here. I didn’t speak to him much after the England thing - I left him be and just sent him a text message. But I’ve seen him a few times since, spoke to him on the phone a couple three or four times.”

Given Allardyce’s record of never being relegated, his appointment at Palace appears to have made Sunderland’s task of staying up that little bit harder – particularly after a first win under his guidance at Bournemouth in midweek.

Moyes said: “I think Sam’s experience means that he’s gone into clubs and he’s got a great record of keeping them up. But I don’t know if I’d have put Palace in the situation of a team that was ever going to be coming down. So that would have been where I would have put Palace.”

Sunderland will come up against Patrick van Aanholt as well today, days after he completed a £14m move to the Eagles. Yesterday the Dutchman claimed Palace are a ‘better team’ and are more ‘solid’ as a unit.

His comments could well be used in the away dressing room as a motivational tool, for a game when Sunderland could do with ending a run of eight games without a win if they don’t want the five point gap to safety to increase.

Moyes said: “I think it’s tight and I think it can change with one win. Teams will have little runs. I think we’ll have a run somewhere between now and the end of the season and I hope the run will be good enough.

“A bit like we had in the first half of the season when we had a few wins. We’ve somehow got to pick up the points and our run somehow we’ll come. We’ve got to make sure we’re not too far away that the run wouldn’t have an effect.

“But I’m confident that we’ll win games along the road here. I would like it to come quickly so we’re right in there. But the thing is to make sure we’re not there come the last day of the Premier League season.”

Sunderland defender Sebastian Coates, meanwhile, has completed a £4.5m move to Sporting Lisbon after a successful loan.