Miguel Cardoso sacked as AEK Athens manager after just one league game

In one of the fastest managerial sackings of all time, Portugal's Miguel Cardoso has been removed from his position as manager of AEK Athens.

The decision comes after AEK suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat against Xanthi, confirming his third managerial sacking in just over 10 months.

New signing Nelson Oliveira grabbed a late goal for AEK, but it wasn't enough to reverse the result, which the AEK owner Dimitris Melissanidis deemed entirely unacceptable.

Melissanidis, upon the termination of the game, reportedly went down to the changing room immediately and fired Miguel Cardoso there and then, on the spot.

And that was that. One league game and he was gone.

However, while Miguel Cardoso was given just one league game at the helm of AEK, he did also oversee three Europa League outings, against Craiova and Trabzonspor.

Against Romanian outfit Craiova, they secured a 3-1 aggregate win, beating them 2-0 away before drawing 1-1 at home (the performance in the latter infuriating the Greek club's owner), while they fell to a disastrous 1-3 home defeat to Trabzonspor in the Europa League playoff round, with the second leg to be played this Thursday.

In any case, four matches is all Cardoso was afforded, showing just how little patience and time there is for managers in the game right now.

But does his sacking really come as a surprise? In truth probably not. After all, Cardoso was voted as our worst high-profile Portuguese manager of the 2018-19 season after disastrous spells at both Nantes and Celta Vigo.

As such, Cardoso has now been sacked by three different clubs in just over 10 months. A horrendous record, rounded off with this rapid dismissal at AEK.

Going into the season, the three biggest clubs in Greece were all coached by Portuguese managers, with Cardoso at AEK joined by Abel Ferreira at PAOK and Pedro Martins at Olympiakos. That track record has come to an end even quicker than most would have anticipated.