Leicester quick to sack Loffreda after poor season

With a haste bordering on the indecent, Leicester yesterday sacked their head coach, Marcelo Loffreda. Had he been manager of Leicester City he would probably have had more time in the job.

The Tigers, the most powerful club in England, finished the season with the cupboard bare and that is not something the board was prepared to tolerate. After a lengthy review the club's chairman, Peter Tom, and chief executive, Peter Wheeler, told Loffreda his services were no longer required. It is a blow not only to Loffreda but to everyone connected to rugby in Argentina.

"The board of Leicester Tigers has come to this decision after conducting its review of the playing season and in assessing what we believe is required to advance the club's aspirations for the future," Tom said in a statement, adding that the decision was taken with "a degree of sadness".

"We have taken this course of action in the best interests of the club," Tom said, "and we felt it had to be done now to allow everyone to prepare fully to meet the challenges of the new season. On behalf of the club the board would like to wish Marcelo and his family well for the future."

Loffreda was headhunted by the same Leicester board in April 2007, as a successor to the Australian Pat Howard. It seemed an inspired choice after Loffreda's Argentina earned the praise of the rugby world. They beat England at Twickenham and were the talk of Paris, and Leicester, during the last World Cup. The Pumas, impoverished compared to the major rugby-playing nations, finished third (better than Australia, New Zealand and hosts France).

The 49-year-old Loffreda arrived in Leicester last November and virtually everybody at Welford Road acknowledged it was going to be a difficult time. "In a World Cup season the club had virtually two different squads," Geordan Murphy, the Tigers' Ireland full-back, said. "It takes time to get it right."

Loffreda, who was contracted to coach the team for the next two seasons, did not have that time. Was there a breakdown in communication? "Marcelo's English wasn't great," Murphy said, "but it was a hell of a lot better than my Spanish. He's a proud man and a good rugby bloke."

The rumour mill about Loffreda's future – the club did nothing to put a spokesman in the wheel – was in full circle in April after Leicester, the holders, put in an anaemic performance in losing the EDF Energy Cup final to the Ospreys. It prompted Tom to declare in public that it was not just the defeat that hurt, but the manner of it.

Leicester made a premature exit from the Heineken Cup, which they had won twice, and last Saturday lost to Wasps at Twickenham in the Guinness Premiership final. They were the defending champions.

"No decision has been made about a new appointment but we expect to have a new rugby structure in place ready for the players' return to pre-season training," Tom said.

We can rule out Brian Ashton but not, perhaps, Jake White, the World Cup-winning South African. Whoever gets the job should beware. The Tigers tend to devour coaches. Ask Bob Dwyer, Dean Richards or poor old Loffreda.