Former Fulham coach Lawrie Sanchez has slammed the Craven Cottage outfit for sacking him far too quickly - after only eight months - and feels that the club are now paying for it as they are staring relegation in the face, four points away from Premiership safety.

"Having dropped into the bottom three for the first time I was then sacked having changed players - 15 in and 15 out," he said. "Any sensible person will tell you it takes time for a team to settle.

"Why undertake the rebuilding of a team if you are not going to see it through? But the nature of the Premier League is such that if you go into the bottom three, the manager is sacked. The pressure builds up to a point where clubs think they need to make changes."