Luiz Felipe Scolari became the latest victim of Roman Abramovich’s short fuse with managers and was sacked as Chelsea boss after a poor run of form.
The Brazilian World Cup-winning coach lasted less than one season in west London and was dismissed after a goalless home draw with Hull City.
Scolari joined in July 2008 with big expectations after guiding Portugal to the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 but the experienced coach didn’t live up to the billing in the English Premier League.
Coincidentally, as was the case this season following Jose Mourinho’s departure, Guus Hiddink took over in an interim role for the first time at Stamford Bridge.
Here’s what else also happened on this day:
1540: The first recorded horse race meeting in England took place at Chester’s Roodee Fields.
1998: Lawrie McMenemy, out of football since resigning after his second spell as Southampton manager, became the first non-Ulsterman to manage Northern Ireland. Joe Jordan and Pat Jennings were named as his assistants. McMenemy resigned two years later.
2006: Former England manager Ron Greenwood died at the age of 84 after a long illness. Greenwood, who also managed West Ham, was in charge of England at the 1982 World Cup finals.
2009: Champion jockey Tony McCoy recorded his 3,000th jumps winner aboard Restless D’Artaix at Plumpton.
2009: Two Premier League managers left their post as first Tony Adams was sacked as Portsmouth boss, before Luiz Felipe Scolari was dismissed by Chelsea.
2012: The Football Association confirmed Stuart Pearce would take temporary charge of the England team for the friendly against Holland on February 29 following the resignation of Fabio Capello. Roy Hodgson was appointed as Capello’s permanent successor in May of that year.
2014: Jenny Jones won Great Britain’s first Winter Olympic medal on snow when she finished third in the snowboard slopestyle event in Sochi.