After Carrick: the sack guillotine claims the head of another Premier League manager
Crystal Palace have officially announced the sacking of their French manager Pierre Sage from his post, just a few months after taking charge, due to the decline in the team's results in the Premier League and his failure to achieve the anticipated start to the current season.
Crystal Palace have sacked French manager Pierre Sage, just a few months into his reign, with the team's results in freefall and his start to the season falling well short of expectations.
The London club confirmed the news in an official statement on Thursday: "Crystal Palace can confirm that Pierre Sage has left his role as head coach."
A dismal run put the Frenchman's future on the line. He managed just two wins in 10 Premier League matches, losing five, and never found a way to lift the team's performances or results.
Sage's exit arrives just hours after Manchester United's board decided to dismiss English manager Michael Carrick.
His position had already been crumbling after a 3-1 home defeat to Liverpool. The result dumped Palace to the bottom of the table, a world away from the picture the board had hoped to paint when the season kicked off.
The trouble did not stop in the Premier League. Palace also struggled in the Europa League, picking up just five points from their first four matches, hardly the platform to push on in Europe with any confidence.
Sage had taken the Palace job after leaving France's Lens, chasing a fresh challenge in the Premier League and a new experience in his coaching career. The results never let him find his feet in London.
As the defeats mounted with no sign of a turnaround, the pressure cranked up. The board, meanwhile, kept waiting for the team to steady itself and compete properly at home and in Europe.
Reports suggest Sage failed to build any real momentum within the squad or do enough to convince the club's hierarchy he could turn things round. So the board pulled the plug, opening a new chapter in the hunt for a man capable of rescuing the season.
Palace have already started running the rule over potential successors. Thomas Frank sits among the frontrunners, alongside Sean Dyche, a manager well versed in dragging clubs out of a relegation dogfight.
Dyche boasts a striking record in exactly this kind of scrap. He won promotion to the Premier League with Burnley twice, kept them in the top flight for six seasons running, and later steered Everton clear of the drop during his time at Goodison.
So Pierre Sage's English adventure ends in a hurry. He left Lens hoping to prove himself in the Premier League, but the results never came to guarantee his future, and now Palace must find a new man to steer the team back on track.
