Madrid (AFP) – Alaves sacked Argentine coach Luis Zubeldia after just four games in charge as they slipped to the bottom of La Liga with a 3-0 defeat at home to Villarreal on Sunday.
“Deportivo Alaves has decided to sack the coach after the results obtained at the beginning of the 2017/18 season,” Alaves said in a statement.
“We thank Luis Zubeldía for the work done during this period and wish him the best of luck in his future career.”
Javier Cabello will take temporary charge and could oversee Wednesday’s trip to Deportivo la Coruna.
Zubeldia failed to muster a point or even a solitary goal in his brief stint in charge with defeats to Leganes, Barcelona and Celta Vigo also sealing his fate.
Alaves finished ninth in an impressive first campaign back in the top flight and reached the Copa del Rey final last season under Mauricio Pellegrino.
However, Pellegrino departed for Southampton and a host of key players also returned to their parent clubs after successful loan spells, including Real Madrid duo Theo Hernandez and Marcos Llorente.
So far a series of high-profile recruits such as former Barcelona pair Bojan Krkic and Munir El Haddadi and Enzo Zidane, son of Real boss Zinedine Zidane, have failed to fire in the opening weeks of the season.
A comfortable win for Villarreal at Mendizorroza thanks to a double for Cedric Bakambu either side of Carlos Bacca’s strike moved the Yellow Submarine up to seventh.
Sevilla’s impressive start to the season also continued with victory on the road at Girona to move up to second.
Luis Muriel’s first goal for the club since completing a 20 million euro ($24 million) move from Sampdoria was enough for a 1-0 win.
