A shocking clip of a football manager being sacked on live television moments after losing a match 5-0 has emerged.
Football is a brutal sport. Players and managers face pressure from fans unlike almost any other job, with the need to perform week in, week out necessary to keep your place.
Claudio Ranieri, Carlo Ancelotti and Steve McClaren, the three most sacked managers in football history, knew this all too well.
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However, none of them suffered the embarrassment of one manager who was sacked on live TV in a clip that has gone viral on social media.
On Sunday, former Montpellier manager Michel Der Zakarian was sacked just minutes after his side were thrashed 5-0 in a Ligue 1 meeting with Marseille.
After the game, club president Laurent Nicollin spoke with DAZN France in a stunning interview that saw him blame the players for the shocking result, before announcing that he had sacked the manager.
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Nicollin told DAZN France, via The Sun: "We can't change 25 players, so, unfortunately, I've taken the initiative to stop Michel tonight.
"We talked in the locker room after the game. I told him it was over tonight.
"And I said to the players that, thanks to their great job, they had fired the coach and that they need to take their responsibilities next week against Toulouse."
The French side have had a dreadful start to the season, losing six of their opening eight matches, while winning only one.
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With only four points, Montpellier are sitting right at the bottom of the French top division, despite a comfortable mid-table finish last season.
Conceding five goals in one game didn't come as a complete shock for the team either, as they currently have a -18 goal difference having conceded a staggering 26 goals since the start of the season.
Nicollin's decision to embarrassingly sack Der Zakarian live on TV ends the Armenian manager's second spell in charge of the French, whom he previously managed for four years between 2017 and 2021 before joining rivals Brest.
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The 61-year-old came back to Montpellier in February 2023, having been sacked by Brest in October 2022 after winning just one of 10 games at the start of the 2022/23 season.
Ben McCrum