Palace have conceded 24 league goals in ten games, and Pierre Sage is set to be sacked after 16 in charge
Palace won the Conference League in May, and five months after replacing Oliver Glasner with the Lens coach they are bottom of the Premier League.
Nov 9, 2026
Crystal Palace are getting ready to sack Pierre Sage after 16 games in charge. The Athletic reported on Sunday night that the club had made up their mind, a few hours after a 3-1 home defeat by Liverpool left Palace bottom of the Premier League. The club have not announced anything yet, and the expectation is that they will use the international break to find his successor.
Liverpool were 3-0 up at Selhurst Park before Eddie Nketiah scored a penalty in stoppage time. It was Palace’s fourth league defeat in a row.
Two wins in ten league games
Palace have 7 points from their first ten matches: two wins, one draw and seven defeats. They are two points behind Nottingham Forest, who sit 16th, and their 24 goals conceded is the worst record in the division.
It is a long way down for a club that ended last season with a trophy. Under Oliver Glasner, Palace beat Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in the Conference League final in Leipzig in May, the first European trophy in their history. Glasner then left for Nottingham Forest, and Sage was appointed on 15 June on a three-year contract.
He looked a sensible pick at the time. Sage, 47, had just won the Coupe de France with Lens, beating Nice 3-1 in the final, and taken them to second place in Ligue 1 behind Paris Saint-Germain.
Cup runs and a thinner squad
The cups have gone better than the league. This season Palace won a Europa League game for the first time in their history, and Nketiah’s goal in a 1-0 win at Fulham on 28 October put them into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals. Across all competitions, though, Sage has won only five of his 16 games.
The defence he took over had already lost Marc Guéhi to Manchester City in January, and Maxence Lacroix was sold to Chelsea in the summer. Jean-Philippe Mateta, who scored the winner in Leipzig, was sent off in the 13th minute of the 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on 31 October and is serving a three-match ban.
“Better than you, I think”
Sage was asked after the Liverpool game whether he would still be in the job after the international break. “Better than you, I think,” he replied. Asked whether the board still backed him, he said: “You have to ask them.” He added: “In my position, I’m focused on what I have to do.”
Thomas Frank, who has managed Brentford and Tottenham, is reported to be the favourite, and The Telegraph says Palace have promised him money to spend in January if he takes the job. Sean Dyche has also been linked. Five months is not much time to judge a manager in a new league, but a side two points from safety with the leakiest defence in the division gives a chairman very little reason to wait.