Former midfield hardman Patrick Vieira was brutally sacked before his return to Arsenal because the Crystal Palace board believed he was too soft.
And the Frenchman follows fellow Premier League legends Scott Parker, Stevie Gerrard and Frank Lampard as the ninth top-flight manager dismissed this season - more than in Serie A.
The World Cup winner was fired on a 7am call yesterday morning with chairman Steve Parish after a run of 12 matches without a victory this year. The Arsenal Invincible has become the boss of the Unwinnables. But to replace him before facing the Premier League leaders in the last game before the international break with Under 21 manager Paddy McCarthy showed how the Palace board had lost faith in Vieira.
The owners - and even the players - were shocked by Vieira’s refusal to get angry as the club slid down the table to within three points of the drop zone.
The Frenchman, 46, has a calmer management philosophy and prefers to gently encourage his players to get the best out of them. But after going four games without a goal - and 292 minutes without a shot on target at one stage - even the Crystal Palace stars felt they needed a motivational rollicking.
Vieira axed first-team coach Shaun Derry in a one-on-one meeting in a coffee shop earlier this year amid claims of a personality clash because the former Palace captain was too abrasive in the dressing room.
The Arsenal legend, who had previously coached New York City and Nice, had also become very down about Palace’s wretched form and there were fears among the hierarchy that if he could not lift himself then he would struggle to lift the players.
Have your say! Were Crystal Palace right to sack Vieira? Comment here
In a statement, chairman Steve Paris said: "It is with enormous regret that this difficult decision has been made. Ultimately, results in recent months have placed us in a precarious league position and we felt a change is necessary to give us the best chance of retaining Premier League status."
But the problems at Selhurst Park have not just been on the pitch. American co-owners David Blitzwer and Josh Harris were both involved in an unsuccessful bid to buy Chelsea earlier this season which would have forced them to sell their Palace stake.
And there have been tensions between Parish, who helped save the South London club in 2010, and new American investor John Textor. Wilf Zaha has been allowed to slip out of contract while work is finally due to begin on a new main stand later this year.
This has been reflected in Palace’s ineffective transfer policy which failed to replace the on-loan Connor Gallagher last summer or back Vieira in January. Celebrity fan Kevin Day tweeted: “Very sorry to see PV go. Our problems lie much further up the ladder than him.”
Palace are in their 10th consecutive season in the Premier League but have been overtaken on and off the field by Fulham, Brentford and Brighton as Vieira tried to adopt a more fluent style after the Roy Hodgson era. Speaking before the first defeat to rivals Brighton since 2019, the Eagles boss was asked about the high-flying Seagulls.
“They have a clear philosophy about how they want to play the game and the new manager comes in and just has to keep doing what has been done the last couple of years.
“Here at Palace, it has been different, the way we wanted to play has changed and of course we need time, stability to really make it more successful and that is why I am working hard with the players to try and play the way we want to play.”
Parker was dismissed by Bournemouth in August after shipping 16 goals in their first three games while his fellow ex-England midfielders Gerrard (Aston Villa in October) and Lampard ( Everton in January) were not backed in relegation battles.
Vieira's departure also means there are no black managers in charge of a club in the top flight of men's and women's football in England.
