Pierre Sage's shortlived Crystal Palace era was never given any chance to succeed

It was only in September that Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish lauded Pierre Sage's "remarkable work" at the club. Yet here we are, in November, with Sage only spared the misfortune of being the first Premier League manager sacked by Manchester United's own disarray. 

Sage was brought in with a view to building on everything Oliver Glasner had started. Hired in June 2026 on a three-year contract to replace the Austrian following a successful stint in France with  Lens, where he won the Coupe de France and secured Champions League qualification through a second-place Ligue 1 finish, confidence was high in south London that the right man was brought in.

Despite Sage only managing 96 professional league games prior to joining the Eagles, the feeling was he'd shown enough evidence to warrant being labelled a rising coaching star in French football -- Palace believed they'd made a coup. A disappointing pre-season was a slight concern but few were looking at it too deeply.

Fast forward to November and Palace sit rock bottom of the Premier League with just two wins from 10 games. The defence is the worst in the top flight too, shipping 24 goals. Was it all down to Sage, or was it the cracks that had formed while Glasner was leading the club to a trophy haul?

Marc Guéhi and Maxence Lacroix, the centre-back bedrocks of that period, are both long gone. The pair were not adequately replaced despite bringing in £72 million between them. Jaydee Canvot, at the time a teenager, replaced Guéhi who left in January for Manchester City. That Guéhi deal infamously infuriated Glasner who took a stinging swipe at the board and in turn signalled the end of his time with the club.

"We feel like we're being abandoned completely. Selling our captain one day before a game -- there is no understanding for this," Glasner said at the time.

Lacroix departed for Chelsea during the World Cup over the summer but a further two new centre-backs didn't arrive until after the current campaign began, disrupting Sage's plans to implement his system.

The key problems for Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace reign

This brings us to the key issue in his short time at the club and that was opting for a back three that worked so well at Lens. None of the Palace players for the centre-back roles at any point looked comfortable in the system.

Palace were unable to splash the cash on top-tier defensive reinforcements over the summer with Parish admitting to The Athletic balancing the books had become a priority.

"With these new rules [Squad Cost Ratio], you have to sell players and it's a combination of January, where we spent a lot of money to support the team, the manager, European competition, and securing our place in the Premier League.

"We needed to raise some money and selling some younger and fringe players was the least egregious thing to the squad."

Incomings amounted to Axel Disasi, Honest Ahanor and free transfers in the shape of Óscar Mingueza and Takehiro Tomiyasu, while Ben Chilwell arrived on loan. To his credit, the former Arsenal man Tomiyasu has looked the best of a bamboozled bunch.

Football finance outlet Valuball placed Palace with the lowest net spend of all Premier League sides with £51m at the end of the summer -- Daniel Munoz's £22m departure alone made the Colombian's transfer the most expensive deal ever for a full-back over the age of 30. He went on to be reunited with Glasner who pitched up at Nottingham Forest after leaving south London.

Some of Palace's struggles were self-inflicted. They splashed out in January with some bizarre attacking signings. £83m went on Brennan Johnson and Jørgen Strand Larsen. Johnson has already left the club, joining Everton in an odd swap deal with Dwight McNeil coming the other way. This panic buying in a notoriously tough-to-navigate period only occurred due to poor squad planning the previous summer.

From an attacking point of view Palace under Sage were actually impressive at times -- yet still, only Hull (179) have had fewer touches in the opposition box than Palace this season (185).

Perhaps the game against Liverpool best summed up the short-lived era. Palace attacked with energy but failed to put away several key chances.

Then when it came to finding an element of control they went missing, created needless giveaways and were undone through their poor defensive transitions. A lack of composure in midfield has been evident, with the gifted Adam Wharton often isolated and asked to do too much in central areas.

Full-backs have been positioned in advanced positions often leaving the team exposed -- a contrast to Glasner's more lopsided setup which pinned one full-back higher as the other retained a deeper position. It has left the three at back that Sage persisted with vulnerable, especially so given the lack of recovery pace among those players.

Lens under Sage were a counter-attacking monster, ranking first for goals scored on the break in the 2025-26 season. Palace offered only glimpses of that under Sage but were unlucky not to have their most exciting player Ismaïla Sarr available for much of the time. The same can be said for Jean-Philippe Mateta who has also suffered with injury.

Throw in the departures of other key players through the past few seasons such as Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise that were not adequately replaced and the entire picture becomes clearer.

It hasn't just been on-field that Palace have had issues. Off the pitch the club was rocked by the news of the Holmesdale Fanatics walking away from attending games as a collective. Irritated by the further sanitisation of football culture in the Premier League, they decided to call time on a supporter effort that had been going for 20 years.

Palace, for as modest as Selhurst Park is by Premier League standards, could boast one of the best atmospheres anywhere across the country. Without the presence of the group, coupled with the downturn in form after such incredible highs under Glasner, Selhurst became a more stale environment.

What next for Crystal Palace after Pierre Sage sack?

Thomas Frank is reportedly a potential replacement for Sage but would Palace really be able to offer him the benefit of the infrastructure he possessed during an immensely successful period at Brentford? After being burned so badly at Tottenham Hotspur surely the Dane would want to walk into a club that finds itself in a better situation.

Sean Dyche is another name. With the greatest of respect to Dyche's experience in the Premier League it would feel like a regressive move given the limitations of his football -- players with the ability of Sarr and Yeremy Pino would be wasted.

Sage never had the time to be as vocal as Glasner was about the direction of the club but his silence, as he bows out, speaks volumes.

The foundation for something special was laid to be built upon at Palace -- instead they've chosen self-destruction.