Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Premier League's last-placed team, fired manager Vitor Pereira on Sunday after a winless start to the season.
Pereira joined Wolves in December when the team was in next-to-last place in the league, secured its survival in the lucrative top flight by April and was handed a new three-year contract in September.
However, Wolves has entered November with just two points after 10 games in the Premier League, having lost eight times and drawn twice. Pereira's final game in charge was a 3-0 loss at Fulham on Saturday.
“Results and performances this term have fallen below acceptable standards, and as a result a change in leadership was deemed necessary,” Wolves said in a statement.
Wolves executive chairman Jeff Shi said when giving Pereira a new deal that “now is a time for stability.”
Yet six weeks later, Pereira has gone.
“Vitor and his team worked tirelessly for Wolves and helped guide us through a challenging period last season, for which we are grateful," Shi said.
“Unfortunately, the start to this season has been a disappointment and, despite our strong desire to give the head coach time and matches to find an improvement, we have reached a point where we must make a change. We thank Vitor and his staff for their efforts and wish them the very best for the future.”
All eight of Pereira’s backroom staff have also left the club, Wolves said.
Under-21 coach James Collins and under-18 coach Richard Walker will take training while Wolves finalizes the appointment of a new manager.
Wolves' next game is at Chelsea in the league on Saturday.
Pereira's preparations for the season were affected by Wolves selling arguably its best two players from the last campaign, Brazil striker Matheus Cunha to Manchester United and left back Rayan Ait-Nouri to Manchester City.
Wolves' main striker, Jørgen Strand Larsen, also missed the start of the season because of a mixture of injury and the effects of being linked with a move to Newcastle in preseason.
It led to Wolves losing its first five league games of the season, its first point only coming in a draw at Tottenham in the last weekend of September.
Pereira was involved in a heated exchange with Wolves' fans after a 3-2 home loss to Burnley last weekend, where sections of the crowd chanted: “You're getting sacked in the morning.”
Wolves has conceded more goals than any other team (22) and no team has scored fewer goals than its seven.
Wolves also was eliminated from the English League Cup by Chelsea in midweek.
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FILE - Wolverhampton Wanderers' head coach Vitor Pereira concentrates during the English Premier League soccer match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, England, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland, file)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
