Aston Villa have sacked manager Roberto Di Matteo after a run of just one victory in 12 games in charge of the club.
Owner Dr Tony Xia has lost patience following a run of one win in 11 Championship games to leave the side in 19th place despite sanctioning a £50million summer spend on new players.
Di Matteo was tasked with guiding Villa to immediate promotion back to the Premier League but that prospect appears increasingly remote with his team 10 points off the play-off places and, alarmingly, only two above the drop zone with almost a quarter of the campaign completed.