Steve Parish and the Crystal Palace board are within hours of pulling the trigger on Pierre Sage. The French coach has flown back from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with his side in the Premier League relegation zone and a shortlist of successors already circulating.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s dismissal in the 13th minute set the tone. Referee Michael Oliver initially booked the striker for a studs-up slide on Micky van de Ven’s Achilles before a VAR check turned the yellow into a straight red. Mateta will miss the next three domestic matches through suspension.
Archie Gray headed Roberto De Zerbi’s side in front from a 25th-minute Mohammed Kudus corner. Jan Paul van Hecke scrambled in a 73rd-minute rebound to secure a third successive Spurs win and send Palace into the bottom three.
Sage says the owners will decide
Sage has not spoken publicly since the whistle. Earlier in the month, with the pressure already building, he told reporters that his position was out of his hands.
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“I don’t have to convince the people around the club. I just have to convince the players to do their best to compete.”
Three straight defeats, the worst defensive record in the division and open booing at Selhurst Park have made that decision considerably easier.
The five names in the frame
The Express has named five candidates on the Palace shortlist as the board prepares to move.
- Gareth Southgate, the former England manager, 56, who started his career at Selhurst Park with close to 200 appearances before leaving for Aston Villa in 1995. He has been out of work since Euro 2024.
- Rob Edwards, 43, well known to Palace sporting director Matt Hobbs from their shared time at Wolves. Edwards is the one the Express describes as available after leaving Wolves.
- Eddie Howe, jobless since parting with Newcastle in the summer. Howe would be working with budgets a long way below what he had on Tyneside.
- Thomas Frank, the former Brentford boss who was sacked by Spurs earlier in the season. Frank was linked with Palace in the summer and his Brentford record on tight finances is the model Palace want.
- Oliver Glasner, the man Sage replaced less than six months ago. Glasner has struggled since taking the Nottingham Forest job in the summer, with Forest even lower than Palace in the table.
From FA Cup winner to relegation zone in six months
Palace sit in the bottom three less than six months after parting with a manager who had won an FA Cup, a European trophy and a Community Shield across two seasons. Sage was presented as the long-term successor on a three-year contract. He has not completed his first six months.
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The next league fixture is at home to Liverpool.
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