Allardyce plays down ´Chinese Crouch` expectations

The 17-year-old striker along with midfielder Zhou Liao is currently on trial from Chinese side Wuhan Huanghelou.

Allardyce said: “We have to look right across the world market.

“The Chinese league is growing quickly, as is the amount of available talent.

“If we can tap into that, all the better it is for us.

“If it happens with these two, we will be very lucky because we have only just started this process.

“I think there are still come big difficulties to overcome – the work permit is a difficulty and of the biggest problems is the obvious differences in culture.

“From my own point of view, I’ve only seen them in a couple of training sessions.

“Chris is obviously impressed with them – he’s the one who asked the club for their two best players and they’ve recommended these two.

“We’re having a look but we’ll be extremely fortunate if these two are good enough.

“If we’re that lucky, it’ll be fantastic but we want to grow the relationship over a period of time.”