West Brom have sacked Slaven Bilic despite securing a draw against Manchester City on Tuesday, with Sam Allardyce reportedly set to take over.
While the draw with City came as something of a surprise and suggested Bilic was still capable of getting the Baggies back on track, the club s decision was apparently already made.
West Brom announced his dismissal on Wednesday but media reports began circulating soon after the clash at the Etihad Stadium.
Bilic leaves the club 19th in the Premier League table with seven points from 13 games, though they are only two points adrift of safety.
A club statement read: West Bromwich Albion have today parted company with head coach Slaven Bilic.
Assistant coaches, Dean Racunica and Danilo Butorovic, and first team coach Julian Dicks have also left the club with immediate effect.
West Brom also thanked Bilic for guiding the club to promotion from the Championship last season, in what was his first campaign at the helm.
Bilic is only the second Premier League boss to leave his post during 2020 – there were nine casualties in 2019 with the current year seeing the lowest figure since 1999.
Numerous names have been linked as a potential replacement, though it seems former England boss Allardyce is the favourite.
Allardyce has already taken charge of more Premier League clubs (seven) than any other manager, with Mark Hughes next on six.
Only Arsene Wenger (828), Alex Ferguson (810), Harry Redknapp (641) and David Moyes (557) have managed more games than Allardyce (512) in the division.
If he is appointed by West Brom, this will be the fifth time Allardyce has taken a Premier League job mid-season – on each previous occasion, he has finished in a higher position than when he arrived.
In the 2008-09 season, Allardyce took charge of Blackburn Rovers when they were 19th and they ended the campaign 15th. He guided Sunderland to 17th and safety in 2015-16 after being appointed when they were second from bottom in the table, while the following season Crystal Palace were 17th when he was hired he took them to 14th.
Finally, in 2017-18, his Everton squad concluded the season sitting in eighth position, a climb of five places.
