Ronald Koeman's Everton reign is over.
The Dutch boss has paid the price for a disastrous start to the new season – despite spending more than £150m on summer signings – with the sack.
A 5-2 thrashing at home to Arsenal was the final straw, and the Everton board are currently meeting to thrash out details.
The board showed their trust in Koeman by allowing him to bring in several big names including Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney and Michael Keane.
But the Blues have only won two of their last ten games and are in the bottom three after the humiliating defeat.
A club statement read: "Chairman Bill Kenwright, the board of directors and majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri would all like to express their gratitude to Ronald for the service he has given to the club over the past 16 months and for guiding the club to seventh place in last season's Premier League campaign."
After the defeat to Arsenal, Koeman said: "I mentioned that before, it is normal, the team is under-performing, the team is in a difficult situation, mentally, confidence, we are struggling and it’s what we need to change.
"This position in the table is not good enough for Everton.
"I understand that, I have been managing for a long time. But I don't think it is too late."
Leon Osman, who played for Everton from 2000 to 2016, believes Koeman's fate had become inescapable given the unsuccessful restructure of the playing squad.
"It's not just results, performances of late have been really below par, really worrying and I think it was pretty inevitable this was going to happen," he told Sky Sports News.
"Everton aren't a club to react too quickly. I'm pretty sure the chairman and Mr Moshiri will have been thinking on this for a while and made the inevitable decision.
"Having someone like Lukaku up front last season and losing him...it sort of changed Ronald Koeman's style of play.
Players need to be brought in slowly, this season he's had 10 new players and it's showed on the pitch."
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