Crystal Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic says he is open to shaking Sam Allardyce’s hand when his side meets Everton in a crucial clash at the weekend.

The former England manager retired from football in May 2017 after guiding the club to safety following the sacking of Alan Pardew, only to return to the game six months later.

It will be the first time Palace, now under Roy Hodgson, play against Allardyce since his departure when they travel to Goodison Park on February 10.

Milivojevic said: “I was very pleased with him [Allardyce] when he signed me. I played for him, I spent the second part of the season with him, we stayed in the league. We had very nice memories under him and for sure he was one of the best managers who I’ve worked with.

"We didn’t expect that [he would leave]. It was just one morning when they said he had left, he wanted to retire from football. It was a shock for us but that was in the break period after the season, and when we heard he wanted to retire from football we were not happy because we had good results under him. But that’s life.

“I’m on the other side, he is on that side. We will try to give our all to beat them [Everton] but before or after the game we’re going to try and shake hands because we spent a lot of time and had great memories.

“He is the manager who wanted me, he signed me. Okay they had difficult moments, but for my career it was a perfect move to be honest and I dedicate to him this.”

The Serbia international was signed last January from Greek club Olympiacos before scoring his first goal for Palace during a 3-0 victory over Arsenal that April.

It is now two consecutive 1-1 draws, with Newcastle and West Ham respectively, as the club continues to navigate avoiding relegation from the Premier League season.

Palace are now 14th after beginning their league campaign with a barren run of seven consecutive defeats, though Milivojevic believes they should have taken all three points in their latest fixture.

The 26-year-old added: “We deserved to win today [against Newcastle], to be honest. We created a lot of chances, we missed a lot of chances, but in the end like I said against West Ham we have to respect the point.

“But we deserved three points from this game, for sure.”