Championship club Blackburn Rovers have sacked manager Michael Appleton after just 67 days in charge.
Appleton is the second first-team coach to be sacked by the club after Henning Berg lasted just 57 days following Steve Kean's resignation.
Rovers have not won in eight and following last week's FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Millwall in front of just 8,635 at Ewood Park and a 1-1 draw with Burnley in the East Lancashire derby, the beleaguered owners - the Venky's - have dismissed their third manager in just over two years.
What? Already?
Assistant manager Ashley Westwood, first team coach Darren Moore and head of senior recruitment Luke Dowling had followed Appleton out of the club.
Gary Bowyer, who took caretaker charge after Berg's exit, has been appointed manager until the end of the season.
Both staff and players were in the dark as to Appleton's fate, underlining the farce the Venky's have presided over since their autumn takeover in 2010.
Appleton won just four of his 15 match in charge, with one of those victories a giant-killing triumph at Arsenal in the FA Cup. Rovers are 18th in the Championship table and four points above the relegation zone.
It was the former Manchester United youth teamer's third club of the season, following managerial stints at Portsmouth and Blackpool.
His departure follows the sackings of Sam Allardyce in December 2010 and Berg three months ago in the Venky's era.
Berg, who signed a three-year deal in October, said earlier in 2012 it would be "madness" to work under the Venky's.
"To work as a manager for a club you need the right owners and to take over as a manager in a club (Blackburn) with owners like that is madness," Berg told talkSPORT in May.
Steve Kean, indisputably the most loathed of the four managers, was "forced to resign" in September last year.
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