Frank De Boer SACKED by Crystal Palace after just FOUR matches in charge at Selhurst Park
FRANK DE BOER has been SACKED by Crystal Palace after just four matches in charge.
In a short meeting on Monday morning, Palace chairman Steve Parish decided to pull the trigger, after Dutchman De Boer lost all of his Premier League games.
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The final nail in the coffin came with a 1-0 defeat at Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
Former England manager Roy Hodgson is the odds-on favourite to take over at Selhurst Park - some reports claim the 70-year-old has already signed a two-year deal with the club.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish had appeared to back De Boer last night after urging supporters to "stick together" in a Twitter spat with furious Eagles fans.
De Boer admitted he was not sure if he would still be in charge by the end of today after the Burnley defeat.
Replying to them, he tweeted: "We're four games in, it's a terrible start but we have to stick together. People are frustrated, I'm frustrated so are the management and players.
"We know we're better than this. I'm happy for people to vent at me, buck stops with me and I've never run away from that.
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HE HAD TO GO
By Neil Ashton
Frank de Boer has been a disaster for Palace.
He had to go, he really did.
De Boer wanted to play the Ajax way, to rely on the principles established by the legendary figures of Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff.
It meant playing 3-4-3 ... and led to three successive Premier League defeats.
Even when he trialled the system over the summer - losing three successive training ground games to Palace’s under-23 side - he stuck with it.
The players, secretly, will be relieved that De Boer has already been moved on.
He has shattered the confidence of some honest Palace players - Martin Kelly and Joel Ward among them - because of his failure to show any empathy.
He did not think there was anything wrong with telling Kelly, who began his career with Liverpool, that he was not good enough to play for Palace.
When Joel Ward was overlooked for selection in a training ground 11 v 11, the popular right back was told to watch the game to learn how to play wing back.
The Dutchman was marked out early on by the Palace players when he started showing off the skills that earned him 112 caps for Holland during a glorious career.
De Boer would pick balls out of the sky, swivel on the spot and then ping one into the top corner in front of the Palace squad.
It was unnecessary and smacked of arrogance.
His playing days finished 11 years ago, but he could not resists showing off in front of his new players.
It filtered back to the boardroom, with de Boer’s unusual requests and methods causing as much concern as results on the pitch.
After the latest defeat, an woeful performance against Swansea on Saturday, Parish did not speak to the manager after the game for the first time in recent memory.
They had met earlier in the week, with Parish making it crystal clear that he would be fired unless results and performances improved.
When he decided to play Timothy Fosu-Mensah, 19, and Jairo Reidewald, 20, in the centre of defence, De Boer was warned that they wold not be physically equipped in the Premier League.
De Boer thought he knew best and played them anyway.
Palace have lost their opening four games, left with 34 games to fight, scrap and battle their way to 40 points.
For that reason, de Boer has paid for it.
"I'm defending everyone at the club who's working their a**e off to turn this around. Football teams lose games, it happens.
"Get some placards and a petition up, I'll stand my record up against any chairman we've had in 118 years."
De Boer believed his side had done enough to buy him more time.
The 47-year-old said: "I don't know what will happen next. I just focus on what I can control my staff, the players and keep thinking about the next game."
SHORTEST REIGNS IN THE PREM
- Frank de Boer - 4 games
- Les Reed - 7 games
- Bob Bradley - 11 games
- Jacques Santini - 11 games
- Iain Dowie - 12 games
Roy Hodgson factfile
- Born in Croydon on August 9, 1947
- Was a youth player at Crystal Palace, but never played in the first-team - his playing career took him around non-League
- Took his first managerial job at just 29 in Sweden with Halmstad in 1976
- Enjoyed a nomadic managerial career, mostly out of England, that has seen him take charge of 15 clubs and four nations
- Has won seven Swedish titles with Halmstad (two) and Malmo (five), as well as the Danish title with Copenhagen
- Led Switzerland to the last-16 of the 1994 World Cup, their first international tournament since 1966
- Got to the final of the Uefa Cup with Inter Milan in 1997
- Had a disastrous spell with Blackburn Rovers in the late 1990s - would not manage in England for another decade
- Was a left-field choice to replace Lawrie Sanchez, but helped Fulham to one of the best spells in their history, finishing a best-ever seventh in 2009 and reaching the final of the Europa League in 2010
- Moved to Liverpool but lasted just 31 games in a dismal reign
- Replaced Roberto Di Matteo at West Brom, avoiding relegation and leading the Baggies to their best finish in three decades
- Left for the England job after Fabio Capello resigned in the build-up to Euro 2012 - where the Three Lions lost on penalties to Italy in the quarter-final
- Qualfied unbeaten for the 2014 World Cup, but in Brazil dismal performances saw England finish bottom of their group, below Costa Rica
- Hodgson then led England to Euro 2016, winning all 10 of their qualifiers
- But the tournament was again a disaster, with a 2-1 group stage defeat to Wales before being knocked out by minnows Iceland in one of the most embarrassing defeats in English football history
But with the Eagles suffering the worst start EVER in the Premier League, De Boer's fate was sealed.
A short Palace statement on the website read: "Cystal 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."
When Parish appointed De Boer at the end of June, he said he wanted the Dutchman - who won four Eredivisie titles with Ajax - to build a long-lasting "legacy" club in South London.
He had gone through a longlist of 37 candidates to succeed Sam Allardyce, after his shock departure at the end of last season.
Parish said: "Throughout his footballing career Frank has been exposed to the absolute epitome of the perfectly run club in Ajax.
"He not only has experience of how to create a winning club and the respect of world football, but also the knowledge of how a football club really functions well from beginning to end.
🦅Betting suspended on Hodgson to Palace🦅
RONALD DE BOER has only been gone a minute but the bookies have already stopped taking bets on his replacement.
Sun Bets spokesman Tim Reynolds said: "The job is Roy Hodgson's - we're certain of it. We were the first to pay out on De Boer losing his job last night but now we've had to shutter the market."
"It is going to be difficult if Frank says 'this is what we did at Ajax' and for me not to think that is a good idea.
"If we can implement that slowly over a period of time, that is what we want to do. But that is against the backdrop of the priority being the first team.
"We want to create a legacy football club that has a security and presence in the Premier League.
"Hopefully Frank can take us to another level."
De Boer now becomes the shortest-serving manager in Premier League history.
His five matches - the Dutchman won a League Cup clash against Ipswich Town last month - is shorter than Les Reed's seven-match tenure at Charlton Athletic in 2006.
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