David Moyes has argued the Football Association are partly to blame for Sunderland’s struggles this season because they took so long to appoint Sam Allardyce as England manager.

Allardyce was poached from Sunderland following the resignation of Roy Hodgson after a disastrous European Championship campaign, but their interest in Allardyce paralysed the Black Cats’ recruitment last summer.

It took the FA almost a month to decide Allardyce was the right man for the job, but that damaged Sunderland, with Moyes arriving in the middle of pre-season training without a list of transfer targets to work on as he had to assess the strength of the squad.

Allardyce will face his former club for the first time since he lost the England job following a Telegraph investigation into corruption in football as the manager of Crystal Palace. Both clubs are involved in a relegation battle and in desperate need of a win at Selhurst Park on Saturday.