Crystal Palace give coach Pierre Sage more time. Will he be gone by 2 December?
Crystal Palace have kept head coach Pierre Sage for now, but he could be sacked if they lose at Tottenham Hotspur on 31 October.
What happened
Pierre Sage has been given more time to turn around Crystal Palace’s fortunes but he remains under huge pressure and could be dismissed if they lose against Tottenham on Saturday.
Crystal Palace lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle United on . Palace are 17th in the Premier League and have let in 19 goals in eight league games, the most in the division. Before that they lost 5-0 to Brighton. After the Newcastle game head coach Pierre Sage said he is still the right man for the club and that there is “no noise inside“.
On the Guardian reported that the club chair, Steve Parish, has decided not to act for now because the next games come so close together: a cup game at Fulham on , then Tottenham Hotspur away on . Sage has been left in no doubt that the Tottenham game is crucial to his future, and he could be sacked if Palace lose.
Sage followed Oliver Glasner as coach and has had only 12 games in charge. People at the top of the club are said to be split, and some want Thomas Frank or Sean Dyche to take over. Former Wolves manager Rob Edwards has also been named. Two leading players have sent Sage messages saying they still believe he can turn things round.
Wednesday 2nd December, Premier League: Chelsea versus Crystal Palace, kick off 19:30
BBC Sport, Crystal Palace fixtures
After Tottenham, Palace play Hoffenheim on and Liverpool on . Then they have no game until Coventry City away on . Real Sociedad and Hull City come next, and Palace go to Chelsea on .
Sources: theguardian.com
The Pattern
We looked for cases where a football club tied the future of a head coach, in the job for less than a year, to one coming game in the middle of a season. We found six such coaches from 2017 to 2025, at clubs in England and Spain. Each time we checked whether the coach was gone within five weeks of the first press report.
Show the other 4 cases
The Read
In the five times the named game was played, the team lost every time. Real Madrid sacked Lopetegui the day after a 5-1 defeat by Barcelona in 2018, and Crystal Palace, with Steve Parish already chair, sacked Frank de Boer the day after a defeat at Burnley in 2017. Three clubs waited after the defeat. Forest waited 13 days and Real Madrid waited 33 days with Xabi Alonso. West Ham kept Lopetegui for 36 more days. Each of the six coaches went after a defeat, never after a win or a draw.
There are reasons for doubt. Palace have not played Tottenham yet, and in Lopetegui won at Newcastle, a game his West Ham job had been tied to, and stayed on. Newspapers write about a last chance more often for coaches who then go, so coaches who survived such a game are harder to find. Two of the six were at West Ham under the same owner, David Sullivan. Some at the top of Palace also feel sympathy for Sage, because defender Axel Disasi has just come back from a three-match ban and the team drew 2-2 at Besiktas.
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