This morning seems a long time ago but waking up to a mobile phone full of messages and news alerts made me wonder what an earth was going on.
Of course, the breaking news was that the Crystal Palace board had decided to part ways with Patrick Vieira, ending his 18 month stint in charge at Selhurst Park.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall following defeat at rivals Brighton in midweek, but Palace have not won a match in this calendar year, and the narrow loss at the South Coast was the third in succession after falling to Aston Villa and Manchester City.
The Eagles currenly sit 12th in the Premier League but in what has turned out to be a very tight bottom half of the table, only three points separate them from Bournemouth in 18th, who themselves have played one game less.
Under 21 coach and former player and Palace captain Paddy McCarthy is to take charge of the game at Arsenal this weekend along with former team-mate and youth team coach Darren Powell.
Regardless of all the statistics that have been banded around, I was surprised at the news this morning and I am not in agreement. It remains to be seen whether it will be an interim managerial appointment or a permanent role but the new man must be in place before the visit of Leicester City on April Fools Day (hopefully that has no relevance!)
It is disappointing that Vieira was not given the rest of the season particularly considering that this Palace side have been hard to beat, but not scoring goals, granted. The run in to the end of the season includes facing 8 of the 9 teams currently below Palace in the table and with an expected maximum of four wins needs to see us comfortably retain Premier League safety, that is likely to have been more than achievable.
With Vieira gone, we now head towards a new face being installed (what we hope will be new and not the bookies favourite Roy Hodgson returning) and the hope that he can hit the ground running after the international break. There is no guarantee there will be that new manager bounce and the board will have to do all they can to ensure that the appointment is right.
The sacking does leave several other questions, and with plenty of revelations being revealed across he media on several topics such as the mid-season trip to Turkey, a bust up between two players and Vieira being interested in the Leeds United job after the sacking of Jesse Marsh is an awful lot to digest, especially for one day.
While the club looks to be very much in disarray, we can look back at the tenure of Patrick Vieira as a fun one even if recent months have not been quite that. He was appointed after not being first choice in the summer after Hodgson left the club. The Frenchman gave us some exciting football as the transition from what had gone before was fully underway, and not forgetting that he took us to an FA Cup semi final. For all of that to fall away so quickly is not entireley a reflection on Vieira, but the board as well for not backing him appropriately in two successive transfer windows.
It is that time to thank Patrick for his efforts, along with all his staff that have cleaned out their lockers at the training ground today, and we move on to back the players, Paddy McCarthy and Darren Powell for the game with Arsenal on Sunday. Then we can look ahead and wait with baited breath to find out who will be next to come in and take charge of Palace.
Whether or not the board have made the right decision in relieving Vieira of his duties at this stage of the season remains to be seen, but this next appointment is hugely significant in terms of the future direction of the football club.
