Pierre Sage departs Crystal Palace after one-minute club statement
Pierre Sage has left Crystal Palace, the club announced on 13 November 2026 in a website statement described as taking one minute to read and comprising 83 words. The brief notice was posted amid broader managerial coverage elsewhere and provided no extended explanation for his exit.
Supporters, the piece said, would argue Sage was “hobbled by knack, suspensions and poor transfer dealings,” and that “approximately nothing went to plan” after he moved from Lens, where he was named Ligue 1 coach of the year six months earlier. Sage’s stated preference was clear: “There are two types of teams: one with the ball, and the other chasing it,” he said last year. “I prefer to be the first of those.” In Ligue 1 last season, only Paris St-Germain and Marseille averaged more possession than his Lens side, yet at Palace he “picked most of them, fielding more players than any other club this season.”
Crystal Palace’s season figures under Sage included an average possession of 43.2%, a level higher than only Coventry and Hull, the article reported. In the end-of-October match against Tottenham — when Palace were “hobbled by a 13th-minute red card” — the club had the ball just 20.8% of the time and finished with an expected goals (xG) of 0.14. That xG was compared with the 0.12 recorded against Manchester City in August 2022, a match in which Palace nonetheless finished with two goals.
Sage described the Spurs defeat succinctly: “It is,” Sage sighed after the Spurs match, “a disaster.” He had earlier set out his “main principles” as “to look to get behind the opposition defence non-stop; and to press your opponents hard so you can win the ball back quickly.” On pressing, Palace ranked bottom of the league on Opta’s pressed sequences metric, defined as “the number of open-play sequences starting in their defensive third where the opposition has three or fewer passes and the sequence ends in their own half.”
The limited high turnovers Palace managed yielded just eight shots (second-bottom in the league) and no goals (bottom). Opta data recorded 24 through-balls for Palace this season, the fifth-highest total in the league, and 23 offsides were also noted.
“Farewell, Pierre, and good luck. You certainly had none of it over here,” the piece concluded, taking a brief moment to mark his departure. The newsletter then moved on to other items, including coverage of managerial movements and awards.
Other items in the same Football Daily extract included a 3 August 2026 quote attributed to Mauricio Pochettino: “It has become clear to us that there is tremendous potential to make the men’s national team program even stronger. The passion we experienced from the fans throughout the [Geopolitics] World Cup only strengthened our belief in what is possible here” – described as Pochettino signing a new contract to manage the USA USA USA to 2030. A 13 November 2026 passage read: “The opportunity to represent the USA [USA USA] crest was one of the greatest honours of my career. We are so grateful to the players for their commitment, to the fans for their belief, and to the federation for always supporting our staff and creating the opportunities to impact the culture of soccer in this great country” – followed by the line “Next stop: Manchester United!” The newsletter also noted the FSA Awards nominations for Big Website, Football Weekly, Women’s Football Weekly and Suzanne Wrack, and invited readers to cast a vote.
Tributes in the edition included a short piece on the late Danny Kelly with a line from Noble Francis: “Rest in Peace, Danny Kelly. You gave us such joy.” Reader letters printed ranged from Andrew Parker — “As they no longer seem to be ‘Dr Tottenham’, I was wondering if they had maybe passed the soubriquet on. I think the England cricket team has provided the answer (again)” — to Mike Wilner — “Impressive list of kiss-off press releases (yesterday’s Football Daily) but why was Ralf Rangnick omitted from the chronological list of post-Fergie managers? Is it because Football Daily valued him as little as Manchester United fans did?” The edition named Noble Francis as today’s “prizeless letter o’ the day,” provided competition terms and conditions, and promoted Football Weekly: “Listen to Football Weekly! Watch Football Weekly!”
For live coverage mentioned in the newsletter, join Scott Murray at 7.45pm GMT for Nations League updates from Scotland 0-0 North Macedonia.
