Crystal Palace sacks Frank de Boer after 77 days at helm
Crystal Palace acted quickly to sack Frank de Boer on Monday after the club lost its opening four matches of the Premier League season without scoring a goal.
The Dutch manager's tenure lasted just 77 days - eight days fewer than his infamously short reign at Inter Milan at the beginning of the 2016-17 campaign.
The Eagles' statement read:
Crystal Palace Football Club have this morning parted company with Frank de Boer.
We would like to thank Frank for his dedication and hard work during his time at the Club.
A new manager will be appointed in due course and we wish Frank the very best of luck for the future.
There will be no further comment at this time.
Two short spells in succession could land a critical blow to a manager who showed promise when he began his coaching career at Ajax. He was handed the reins of the senior side in 2010, and guided the Netherlands giant to four consecutive Eredivisie titles. However, his football gradually lost some of its totaalvoetbal traditions, and promotions from the youth setup started to dry up in his final two seasons at the helm.
He still landed a huge gig when Inter, backed by funds from a Chinese consortium, hired him in the summer of 2016. The expensively assembled squad failed to gel, however, and he was given the chop after less than three months and 14 matches.
"Coming to a club at the start of the season is never easy, but he (De Boer) tried to change a lot of things and create a big squad," said Inter striker Mauro Icardi after De Boer's firing.
"He was relaying things to us that we didn't know."
De Boer licked his wounds for the remainder of the 2016-17 season until Crystal Palace requested his services this summer. It was a wholly uninspiring reign, with the players struggling to acclimatise to a back-three and possession-based football.
| Match | Competition | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huddersfield at home | Premier League | Lost 3-0 | Wing-back Joel Ward produced no dribbles or key passes |
| Liverpool away | Premier League | Lost 1-0 | Crystal Palace mustered one shot on target |
| Ipswich at home | League Cup | Won 2-1 | Ipswich fielded nine players aged 20 or younger |
| Swansea at home | Premier League | Lost 2-0 | Christian Benteke didn't shoot all match |
| Burnley away | Premier League | Lost 1-0 | An improved showing saw 23 shots fail to breach Burnley |
Crystal Palace's dismal beginning to the season marked the first time a top-tier club in England had been defeated in its opening four matches without scoring since Preston North End in the 1924-25 term. The change of tactical approach had failed, with the Eagles long shaped by more defensively aware and direct football under the likes of Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock, Alan Pardew, and Sam Allardyce before De Boer's unveiling.
The Croydon club is now expected to promptly appoint De Boer's successor, with Roy Hodgson, the former England boss, expected to scribble terms on Monday.
Related - Report: Hodgson set to succeed De Boer at Crystal Palace