Pierre Sage Sacked by Palace After 16 Games and £4m Lens Buyout

• Crystal Palace sacked Pierre Sage on Thursday after 16 games, with the club bottom of the Premier League, per The Guardian.
• Palace have seven points from 10 league games and have conceded 24 goals, the most in the division.
• Thomas Frank, out of work after Spurs sacked him in February, is in advanced talks to take over.

Three Coaches Leave With Sage as Palace Sit Bottom

Pierre Sage is out at Crystal Palace after 16 games. The Frenchman arrived in mid-June on a three-year contract to replace Oliver Glasner. Palace paid more than £4m to buy him out of his deal at Lens. Sunday’s 3-1 home defeat by Liverpool was his last match, and it left the club bottom of the Premier League. Palace confirmed the decision on Thursday afternoon, and three members of his coaching staff have gone with him. The club statement read: “Crystal Palace Football Club can confirm that Pierre Sage has left his role as Manager. Three members of Pierre’s coaching staff – Jamal Alioui, Damien Della Santa and Sandy Guichard – have also left the club.”

A Delayed Exit and a Possible Return to Lens

The decision to sack Sage was made on Sunday evening. Negotiations over compensation for the rest of his three-year contract delayed his exit, and a second complication arrived when Lens sacked Yannick Cahuzac on Tuesday. Sage has emerged as the favourite to take over at his old club, where he won the Coupe de France and qualified for the Champions League in his final season. The Lens owner and president, Joseph Oughourlian, has stayed in close contact with him and is understood to have held talks about a return.

A move would let Palace avoid paying some of the compensation, after they spent more than £4m to buy him out in the summer. Chair Steve Parish had held off sacking Sage in October.

How the Season Fell Apart

Sunday’s loss was the fifth defeat in an eight-match run that also included a 5-0 hammering by Brighton. The only win in that sequence came in the Carabao Cup at Fulham, and Palace have lost four league fixtures in a row. Their two league wins came against Fulham and Nottingham Forest. They have conceded 24 goals, the most in the division, and sit 21st in the 36-team Europa League table.

Palace lost their two main central defenders this year, Marc Guéhi to Manchester City in January and Maxence Lacroix to Chelsea in the summer. Axel Disasi and the teenager Honest Ahanor arrived on loan as replacements. Palace did not land Malick Fofana, one of Sage’s top targets, and Daniel Munoz also left. The club were the lowest spenders in the Premier League in the summer.

Sage is understood to have fallen out with the board over the failure to sign what he regarded as adequate replacements for Guéhi and Lacroix. Parish was unhappy with his treatment of Jaydee Canvot, the France Under-21 international, who was dropped for September’s home defeat by Ipswich, and expressed displeasure after Adam Wharton was substituted in that match.

Sage gave his verdict after the 2-0 loss at Spurs, his penultimate league match. “It’s a disaster,” he said.

Glasner’s Shadow and the Search for a Successor

Glasner presided over the most successful period in Palace’s history, winning the FA Cup, the UEFA Conference League and the Community Shield. Lacroix and Munoz were among the key players who left with him. Glasner’s return to Selhurst Park with Nottingham Forest produced one of Palace’s two league wins this season. The pundit Andy Hinchcliffe said Sage faced a hard task: “With Pierre, a three-year contract means nothing if you start the season as poorly as they have.”

Hinchcliffe compared the job to a famous succession at Old Trafford: “Stepping in after Oliver Glasner is like David Moyes stepping in after Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd. It is a very difficult job to emulate – or even get close to – what the previous coach has achieved.”

He added: “I always felt he was up against it, so I’m not really surprised. With the results they’ve had and the fact they are bottom of the league, that’s a bit more understandable than maybe Michael Carrick’s situation at Man Utd.”

Manchester United sacked Carrick on Thursday morning.

Frank has emerged as the main candidate. Spurs dismissed him in February, after less than eight months in charge with the club 16th, five points above the relegation zone, and he remains out of work. Before that he spent seven years at Brentford, from 2018 to 2025, getting them into the Premier League and establishing them as a top-flight club. He spoke to Palace in the summer and wants a new challenge. Hinchcliffe backed the idea: “I can understand (why Palace would target) Thomas [Frank], given he’s out of work and the incredible job he did at Brentford.”

He also vouched for the man himself: “I knew Thomas well from his work there when they were in the Championship. He’s a wonderful man, a wonderful coach and knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Palace hope Frank takes charge before the trip to Coventry on Saturday 21 November, a 3pm kick-off. Sean Dyche, who has his backers at the club, and Vítor Pereira are the alternatives. Frank Lampard, Kim Hellberg, Vitor Matos and Tony Popovic have also been on the club’s radar, with Ole Werner and Jens Berthel Askou also considered.

What Comes Next

Real Sociedad visit Selhurst Park in the Europa League on Thursday 26 November. Palace’s statement named no successor and ended: “The club would like to place on record its thanks to Pierre and his staff for their efforts during their time in South London, and wish them well for the future. An update on the process of appointing a new manager will be provided in due course.”