Palace sack Sage and open Thomas Frank talks
Crystal Palace have sacked head coach Pierre Sage with the club bottom of the Premier League after ten matches. BBC Sport reported the decision on Thursday afternoon, and the Guardian reported that Palace are in advanced talks to appoint Thomas Frank. The club has not confirmed an appointment, and it has not named a caretaker for the next fixture.
Sage leaves after 16 matches in charge in all competitions, according to BBC Sport. In the league the record is two wins, one draw and seven defeats from ten games, with ten goals scored and 24 conceded. That is seven points, twentieth place, and the worst defensive record in the division by five goals.
The decision
BBC Sport, Sky Sports, ESPN and the Guardian all reported the sacking within a few hours of each other on Thursday. The pattern is familiar: a decision taken after a run of results, announced without a replacement in place. Palace have not published the terms of any settlement, and no interim coaching team has been confirmed.
What is not in dispute is the table. Palace have taken seven points from 30, the fewest in the division. They have conceded 24 goals, and their goal difference of minus 14 is the worst in the league. Those are the numbers any new coach inherits, whatever the terms of the change.
The record that ended it
Two wins in ten matches is a poor start, but the shape inside it is worse. Palace have drawn once. A team with one draw in ten games is a team whose matches are being decided, and Palace have lost seven of those decisions. Their two wins were not followed by a run: each was separated from the next by defeat.
The defensive column explains most of it. At 2.4 goals conceded per match, Palace would concede 91 over a 38-game season. No side in the division is close to that rate. Arsenal have conceded five, Brighton seven and Manchester City 13. Even Manchester United, eighteenth and in the relegation zone, have conceded 19.
The season in numbers reads like this:
- Sixteen matches in charge in all competitions, ten of them in the league.
- Two league wins, one draw, seven defeats, seven points, twentieth place.
- Ten goals scored and 24 conceded, a goal difference of minus 14.
- An average of 0.7 points and 2.4 goals conceded per league match.
Those four lines are the case for the decision. They are also the reason the club acted in November rather than at the end of the season: one point from nineteenth place with 28 matches left is recoverable, but a defence conceding at that rate is a pattern rather than a bad month.
Thomas Frank talks
The Guardian reported that Palace are in advanced talks to appoint Frank, and presented the move as the club's preferred route rather than one option among several. That is a report, not an announcement. Palace have not confirmed an agreement with any candidate, and no start date has been given.
The link is easy to explain. Frank has managed in the Premier League and has built teams around a defined shape rather than a large spend, which is the profile a club in twentieth place can actually hire in November. Whether he accepts is a separate question, and until Palace say so the only confirmed fact is that the job is vacant.
Where the table stands
The bottom six are separated by three points, so a single win would lift Palace above Sunderland and Manchester United. The gap in goals is the problem, not the gap in points.
| Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Pts/match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 27 | 2.70 |
| Coventry City | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 19 | 9 | 0.90 |
| Nottingham Forest | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 9 | 0.90 |
| Manchester United | 10 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 19 | 8 | 0.80 |
| Sunderland | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 17 | 8 | 0.80 |
| Crystal Palace | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 24 | 7 | 0.70 |
Palace have the same number of wins as Forest and Sunderland and one more than United. On wins alone they are not the worst team in the league. On goals conceded they are, by five, and that is the column the club has acted on. The league table shows the same story from the other direction: the teams around Palace are separated by a point or two, while the gap in goals is measured in double figures.
What comes next
Palace's next fixture is at Coventry City on Saturday 21 November, the first match after the international break. The list of matches offers no easy sequence. Coventry won 4-1 at home against Newcastle United in October, their first home win in the Premier League in 25 years, and they sit seventeenth with nine points.
Nothing changes before then. Palace stay on seven points, with 28 matches left and 33 points needed to reach the 40-point line that usually separates survival from relegation. That is 1.18 points per match from here, almost double their current rate, and it has to be found with a squad that has conceded 2.4 goals a game.
The club's next statement is the one that matters. Until it arrives, the sacking is reported, the Frank talks are reported, and the numbers in the Premier League table are the only part of the story nobody is arguing about.