Crystal Palace sack promotion-winning head coach Laura Kaminski | OneFootball

Crystal Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, described the decision to sack Laura Kaminski as “extremely difficult” after the Women’s Super League’s bottom side confirmed the head coach’s shock departure.

Kaminski guided Palace to promotion by winning last season’s Championship title but the club have made a change after 14 games of the 22-match top-flight campaign, with the team four points from safety.

The news was announced fewer than 48 hours before Sunday’s home WSL fixture against Liverpool, who are also managerless after the exit of Matt Beard on Thursday. Palace are through to the Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals, in which they travel to Chelsea on 9 March.

In their inaugural WSL season the London club have won one game and drawn three but there had been a widespread feeling externally that the side had performed well in attempting to bridge the gap between the second and top tiers.

Last term Bristol City were relegated straight back to the Championship with six points, a tally Palace equalled by drawing at Brighton on 2 February in their most recent WSL match. But they have not won in the league since 6 October and remain the favourites to be relegated.

Parish said: “This has been an extremely difficult decision for the club to take. Laura has made a fantastic impact since arriving in the summer of 2023, getting the club promoted to the WSL for the first time in its history. Laura has given her all, on and off the pitch, and she leaves here with all of our thanks and best wishes for the future.”

Kaminski’s exit follows WSL manager changes this season at Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool. The Liverpool interim manager, Amber Whiteley, has said she will put her name forward to become their full-time manager.

The former Liverpool academy coach, who was Beard’s assistant, said: “I’ll put my name in the hat.” As revealed by the Guardian, it is likely she will be in interim charge for the rest of this season. “That’s the indication I’ve been given,” Whiteley said, “but obviously that recruitment process has already started.

“There are always mixed emotions when a manager leaves a club – it’s never an easy thing to go through. But the players have been absolutely brilliant today, the way they’ve responded and turned their focus to Palace at the weekend. They were super in training.”

Header image: [Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian]