Rudi Garcia Sacked as Roma Manager: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

Roma officially parted company with manager Rudi Garcia on Wednesday, ending his two-and-a-half-year stint with the Serie A giants.

News of the decision to sack the 51-year-old came via Roma's website, with club president Jim Pallotta thanking him for his efforts:
"On behalf of myself and everyone at AS Roma, I’d like to thank Rudi Garcia for all of his hard work since joining the club. We’ve all enjoyed some great moments during his time at Roma but we believe that this is the right time for a change." 
The Giallorossi currently find themselves in fifth place in Serie A, seven points back on league leaders Napoli. A 1-1 draw against AC Milan was the Frenchman’s final game in charge of the capital club.
While Garcia’s side thrilled at times during the 2015-16 season, with the likes of Gervinho, Mohamed Salah, Miralem Pjanic and Edin Dzeko making this team a huge attacking threat, defensive flaws have cost them dear as they seek to make progress.

Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

Presenter Mina Rzouki noted earlier on in the campaign as Roma were humbled 6-1 by a brilliant Barcelona side in the Champions League, there has been a sense this group weren't fulfilling their potential:
Indeed, there was a lot of initial promise when Garcia took on the job. Despite some scepticism about the appointment of the former Lille boss in 2013, the players clearly took on board his instructions and Roma became the first team in the history of top-flight Italian football to win every one of their opening 10 games.
Sadly for Garcia, they were unable to convert such a strong start into anything tangible, with Juventus eventually recovering and taking the league title.
It was a similar story the following term, with the team showing encouraging early signs before eventually tailing off; Roma finished in second place in both of Garcia’s first two years in charge.
In the Champions League there have been some struggles, too. They were very well beaten by Barcelona this season, while in October 2014, Garcia’s men had their campaign totally derailed in the wake of Bayern Munich romping to a 7-1 triumph at the Stadio Olimpico.
Though they qualified from their group in the current Champions League campaign—they face Real Madrid in the last 16—they did so with the joint-lowest points tally ever of six, per UEFA's Paul Saffer.


The club’s board clearly feel as though this is a team that needs a new leader and Garcia will be disappointed to have gotten the chop at such a crucial stage in the campaign.
Whoever does come in to take this job on will have a talented squad to work with, bolstered by two successive summers of high spending. 
The Giallorossi definitely could have given Garcia more time to piece some consistency together. On the flip side, a new face may be exactly what this squad need to seize their first Scudetto since 2000-01.