LOSING Mark Fish to Charlton Athletic after believing he had an agreement on a new contract wasn't the first time Sam Allardyce has had a key player snatched from under his nose.

The Wanderers boss has previously revealed he had hoped to sign Stanislav Varga before Sunderland snapped him up.

But he went into detail today on how close he actually came to signing the highly-rated Slovakian international before he joined Peter Reid's Premiership Black Cats for £850,000.

"We found the best centre-half in the summer, without a doubt, and let him slip through our fingers," Allardyce recalls with considerable regret.

"We had Mr Varga over here and showed him round the stadium.

"It was the day before we went to Denmark on the pre-season tour. I got on the plane, knowing we'd agreed terms and thinking the deal was done.

"He'd gone back to the Jarvis hotel and was coming back the following day to sign. The next day he'd gone!

"That shows you how difficult the job can be."

Allardyce only discovered the reason for the Varga snub days later when he received a call from Reid, his old mate.

"I wasn't very happy when I found out he'd gone to Sunderland," he admits, "but I wasn't angry with Reidy. A second agent, different to the one I'd been dealing with, had got his hands on the player. Obviously he wasn't going to sign for us when a Premiership club was in for him.

"But it was soul-destroying because of all the work I'd put into it. I think it was March when I first started chasing Varga and I put a lot of time and effort into the deal until it fell through in mid-July.

"I couldn't have afforded the initial fee but I'd managed to whittle it down to something I could afford ... in the end I was just gazumped!

"That's how cut-throat the business can be."

Missing out on Varga in the summer and now, having lost Fish to Charlton, has left Allardyce short on quality in the centre-back department.

He might have been better fixed if Sunderland's Paul Butler had agreed to come to the Reebok on loan or if Mike Whitlow wasn't sidelined.

Ideally, he would still have Fish! For, despite all the harsh words he had for the South African, he would rather have him in his ranks than £700,000 in the bank!

"I'd prefer Mark to have been here for the rest of the season and to have seen his contract out," Allardyce admits. "On his day as a footballer he was very, very good.

"Now I have to replace somebody of his quality with not much money ... if any!

"You need quality players to replace quality players but, if you don't have the money, that's not possible."