Crystal Palace announced on Thursday 12 November that Pierre Sage is no longer the club’s manager. It came an hour after Manchester United sacked Michael Carrick, so two Premier League managers lost their jobs on the same day. Palace are bottom of the table with seven points from ten matches. According to reports from BBC Sport and The Guardian, Thomas Frank, the former Brentford and Tottenham manager, is the favourite to take over. The club have not yet named a successor.
The key points
- Sage has gone after five months and ten league matches. Three members of his coaching staff have left with him.
- Palace have won two league matches, lost the last four and conceded 24 goals, the most in the league.
- According to media reports, Thomas Frank is in advanced talks with the club. Palace want a new manager in place before the trip to Coventry on 21 November.
- Hardly anyone in FPL owns Palace players. The most popular, Will Hughes, is in 5.6% of squads and Tyrick Mitchell in 4.7%.
- The other side matters more: each of Palace’s next five opponents has a fixture rated 2 for difficulty. That is an opportunity for Coventry, Hull, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester United players.
What the club announced
In a short statement Crystal Palace confirmed the departure of Sage and three of his assistants: Jamal Alioui, Damien Della Santa and Sandy Guichard. The club thanked them for their work and said it would provide an update on appointing a new manager in due course. It did not say who would take training in the meantime, but the international break gives the club more than a week to decide.
Sage arrived from Lens in June, where he finished second in Ligue 1 and won the Coupe de France. He replaced Oliver Glasner, who moved to Nottingham Forest in the summer after winning the FA Cup, the Community Shield and the Conference League with Palace. Sage was one of the seven new managers we covered before the season. According to BBC Sport and Fabrizio Romano, he now wants a break from football and is not returning to Lens.
Palace’s season in numbers
| Gameweek | Match | Palace’s result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Everton (away) | 0-2 |
| 2 | Manchester City (home) | 1-4 |
| 3 | Fulham (away) | 3-2 |
| 4 | Ipswich (home) | 2-3 |
| 5 | Leeds (away) | 0-0 |
| 6 | Nottingham Forest (home) | 3-1 |
| 7 | Brighton (away) | 0-5 |
| 8 | Newcastle (home) | 0-2 |
| 9 | Tottenham (away) | 0-2 |
| 10 | Liverpool (home) | 1-3 |
That is two wins, one draw and seven defeats, with 10 goals scored and 24 conceded. Palace’s last league win came on 11 October against Forest. In the Europa League they have won one match out of four. According to ESPN, it is the first time since 2017 that Palace have been bottom after a full round of matches.
Summer departures have weakened the defence too. Maxence Lacroix moved to Chelsea, as we covered in our transfer window round-up, and Daniel Muñoz followed Glasner to Forest. On top of that, Jean-Philippe Mateta is suspended until 2 December after his red card at Tottenham, and the club’s appeal was rejected.
Who could replace Sage
The name mentioned most often is Thomas Frank. According to reports from BBC Sport and The Guardian, the Dane is in advanced talks with Palace, and Fabrizio Romano says he is top of the club’s list. None of these sources says a deal is done, and the club has announced nothing, so we are treating it as a report, not a fact.
Frank managed Brentford from 2018 to 2025. He took them into the Premier League through the play-offs in 2021 and kept them there for four seasons. He moved to Tottenham in the summer of 2025 but was sacked in February 2026 after eight league matches without a win, with the team 16th. He has been out of work since then, so he could start straight away.
What it means for FPL: Palace players
| Player | Pos. | Price | Owned | Points | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hughes | MID | £4.3m | 5.6% | 4 | 43, sell |
| Mitchell | DEF | £4.5m | 4.7% | 33 | 78, hold |
| Mateta | FWD | £6.3m | 1.1% | 3 | 45, suspended until 2 December |
| Henderson | GKP | £4.9m | 1.0% | 10 | 54, sell |
| Kamada | MID | £5.0m | 0.6% | 36 | 80, buy |
| Wharton | MID | £5.3m | 0.6% | 29 | 80, buy |
| Richards | DEF | £4.9m | 0.5% | 27 | 75, hold |
| Strand Larsen | FWD | £5.9m | 0.4% | 23 | 68, risky (ankle, 75%) |
First, an honest word about our model. The ratings above come from match data and fixtures. The model does not know the manager has changed and cannot predict who will gain or lose a place in the team.
Will Hughes is owned by 5.6% of managers but has played 40 league minutes and scored 4 points. He is a cheap bench player at £4.3m. A new manager changes nothing here, because Hughes does not play anyway.
Tyrick Mitchell (4.7%, £4.5m) is the only popular Palace player who plays regularly: 869 minutes and 33 points. A defence that has conceded 24 goals rarely keeps clean sheets, though. If Mitchell is on your bench you can keep him. If he is in your starting XI, there are better options at the same price, such as Andrew Robertson (Liverpool, £4.3m, rated 86).
Kamada and Wharton are both rated 80 with a buy verdict, and each is owned by 0.6% of managers. Both play regularly in midfield, but under a new manager only the first line-up will show whether that stays the case. For now they are watchlist players.
Who gains from Palace’s weakness
| Gameweek | Date (UK time) | Match | Difficulty for Palace’s opponent (1–5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Saturday 21 Nov, 15:00 | Coventry v Crystal Palace | 2 |
| 12 | Sunday 29 Nov, 14:05 | Crystal Palace v Hull | 2 |
| 13 | Wednesday 2 Dec, 19:30 | Chelsea v Crystal Palace | 2 |
| 14 | Saturday 5 Dec, 15:00 | Aston Villa v Crystal Palace | 2 |
| 15 | Sunday 13 Dec, 19:00 | Crystal Palace v Manchester United | 2 |
According to the game, each of Palace’s next five opponents has an easy fixture, rated 2 for difficulty. That makes it a good time for players from those teams:
- Coventry (Gameweek 11, home): Jack Rudoni costs £4.9m, is rated 89 with a buy verdict and is owned by 1.2% of managers. He is one of the cheapest highly rated midfielders in the game. Popular defender Bobby Thomas (7.3%) is flagged at 75%.
- Hull (Gameweek 12, away): goalkeeper Tzolakis (13.5%) and defender Ajayi (11.9%) are already in many squads, and the Palace match gives them a real chance of a clean sheet.
- Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester United (Gameweeks 13–15): the bigger names are here. Nicolas Jackson (Aston Villa, rated 92, strong buy) plays Palace in Gameweek 14, and Bruno Fernandes in Gameweek 15. We covered United’s situation under a new manager in our piece on Carrick’s sacking.
One caveat. A new manager often starts by tightening up the defence, and a team that has just changed manager can play above itself for a few matches. A difficulty rating of 2 is the game’s view as things stand today. Fixture difficulty for every club is on our Fixture Ticker.
What to do now
- You have Hughes on your bench: do nothing. He is only there to save money.
- You own Mitchell: keep him, unless you need the money for a more urgent move or he is in your starting XI.
- You want a cheap midfielder: consider Rudoni for the Palace match, but check his fitness after the international break.
- Palace players: do not buy any before the new manager’s first line-up.
The Gameweek 11 deadline is Saturday 21 November at 11:00 UK time. The best transfers for that round are on our Who to Buy page, and the injuries from the international break are in our piece on Guéhi, van Dijk and Manzambi. We will update this article once Palace announce their new manager.
Written with the help of AI, based on Crystal Palace’s statement and media reports from 12 and 13 November 2026 (ESPN, BBC Sport, The Guardian, Fabrizio Romano), data from the official Fantasy Premier League game and our rating engine. Palace’s new manager has not yet been officially announced. Edited and checked by our editorial team.