Legendary former Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids has been sacked by Portuguese club Olhanense with the chairman branding the move a “disaster”.
The former star - who counts Ajax, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Tottenham among his clubs across a glittering playing career - spent just six months in the dugout at the Algarve club.
Davids coached Olhanense to eight victories in his 19 matches at the helm but missed out on promotion by just one point in the playoff group.
Olhanense - who were in the Portuguese top flight between 2009 and 2014 - are currently languishing in the third tier, and finished third in the regulation league standings.
That ensured they went into a four-team promotion playoff group in which all teams played each other home and away, but Davids guided his side to just two victories and seven points from six matches - meaning they missed out on promotion by one point.
Davids was only appointed at the club in January and was tasked with winning promotion, but they finished a whopping 15 points off league champions Vitoria Setubal and third in the standings.
The Algarve club's chairman Luis Torres has now fired Davids and branded his reign ‘a disaster’, and distancing himself from the appointment earlier this year.
Torres wrote in an open letter to the club’s fans: “The decision to appoint Edgar Davids was foisted on me by our sporting director.
“His arrival was supposed to make the club better off financially, but I saw no evidence of this."
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Torres added: “From a sporting point of view his appointment was a disaster. I could see it coming, but we didn't have a lot of options.
“Let's be honest - our coach didn't manage to forge a bond with the players or get the team to learn a precise style of play.
“Edgar Davids is someone with a rich history as a player, but that has nothing to do with his qualities as a coach.”
A statement from the Algarve club added: “We have reached an agreement with Edgar Davids, and he is leaving his post as our coach.
“We wish him every personal and sporting success with his next project.”
Davids scored 50 goals across 590 appearances at club level and was capped 76 times by the Dutch national side.
He finished his playing career in England - playing seven matches for Crystal Palace in the second tier in the 2010-11 campaign before joining Barnet two years later.
Davids made 38 first-team appearances for the club as he became their player-manager, but he suffered relegation to the Conference in 2013.
He won just 25 matches of his 68 games at the helm of Barnet before handing in his resignation in January 2014.
He only returned to football last year as assistant at Dutch club Telstar before his appointment in Portugal in January.
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