LONDON: Everton have sacked manager Marco Silva the day after dropping into the relegation zone following a 5-2 defeat at Merseyside rivals Liverpool, the Premier League club said on Thursday.

Silva, who arrived at Goodison Park in May 2018, has left with the team languishing 18th in the table on 14 points after they lost nine of their 15 league games this season.

Silva’s departure was announced in a short statement by Everton, which also said that Duncan Ferguson, the club’s former striker, will take temporary charge for the league game against Chelsea on Saturday.

The club aims to confirm a new permanent manager as swiftly as possible,” Everton said, with former manager David Moyes among those linked with the vacancy.

Silva becomes the fourth Premier League manager to be sacked in little over two weeks after Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Watford also fired Mauricio Pochettino, Unai Emery and Quique Sanchez Flores respectively. Everton have spent over 200 million pounds ($256.60 million) in the past two close-season transfer windows but few of the players brought in have made a positive impact and the club instead faces a battle at the wrong end of the table.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2019