Roy Hodgson insists it’s ‘far too late’ for Sam Allardyce to apologise over comments mocking his speech impediment

Roy Hodgson has insisted it is “far too late” for Sam Allardyce to make up for comments he made after succeeding him as England manager in 2016 and revealed the Everton boss has never offered him a private apology.

Crystal Palace travel to Everton on Saturday when Hodgson will come face-to-face with the 63-year-old for the first time since Allardyce was caught on camera mocking his speech impediment.

Allardyce was heard calling him “Woy” as part of an undercover newspaper sting and claimed Hodgson would “send them all to sleep” if he became a public speaker after leaving his post as England manager after Euro 2016.

Asked if Allardyce had ever apologised for his comments and if Hodgson had felt hurt by it, the Palace boss said: “No. Do you like being insulted? No, not particularly. Did it bother me? I didn't lose any sleep over it. My relationship with him was good. Now I would expect it to be less good.”

When pressed on whether Allardyce should apologise at Goodison Park on Saturday, he responded: “No. Far too late. It has gone. It belongs to the distant past.

“In jobs like I am doing at the moment, when you are the manager of a Premier League club, you live very much in the ultimate present and the future.

“I'm not interested. I've said what I've got to say. I've come here to talk about Crystal Palace Football Club and Everton Football Club. It could have been Ronald Koeman against Frank de Boer.”

During Allardyce’s press conference before the game, he insisted that while he apologised publically a number of times, he’d never had the chance to do it privately.

“I'll hopefully speak to him and see him at the game,” said Allardyce. “A lot of time has passed since that unfortunate situation. I (apologised) publicly and I did it more than once.

“If you are going to do something like that I prefer to be private. I've never had the opportunity privately to talk about it which would be better than a conversation on the phone. Hopefully he is fine with it.”