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Parish hoping to bring Sakho to Palace permanently

Cape Town - Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish will attempt to bring Liverpool down on their asking price for Mamadou Sakho - admitting the defender has been "massive" for the south London club.

The France international linked up with the Eagles on a six-month loan deal in January after falling out of favour with Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, and his impact was telling.

Sam Allardyce struggled to get the best of out his team initially following his arrival in December, failing to win any of his first five games at the helm, but the inclusion of Sakho in his back-line coincided with a turnaround in fortunes.

Palace kept three straight clean sheets followed by a 2-1 win over league leaders Chelsea - their fourth victory in a row. Allardyce's side went on to avoid relegation after beating Hull 4-0 on Sunday to condemn them to the drop instead.

The Merseysiders reportedly want £30 million for the 27-year-old centre-back - who has also been linked with Southampton, West Ham, Nice and Marseille - but Parish is hoping to haggle on the fee, just as he did last year to sign Christian Benteke.

"You can't con anyone that he didn't make a massive difference. We won some massive games with him," Parish told the Holmesdale Radio podcast.

"He's a really nice person, a big character, he's got the respect of all the players, and it's one we'd like to do.

"But, of course, we have a lot of things we need to do in the summer, and the money needs to work for us and for Liverpool.

"I'm sure there'll be a negotiation on that. If we can make it work, of course we'd like to, I'm not going to try and be coy or clever on that.

"He's a very good player and I think he likes being with us. We like him. Let's hope we can do it."

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