Roy Keane sacked as Ipswich manager
Roy Keane has been sacked as manager of Ipswich after 20 months at Portman Road, BBC Sport understands.
The club have suffered seven losses in nine games and the 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest on Monday left the club 19th in the Championship table.
Ipswich, backed by multi-millionaire Marcus Evans, have invested £8m on players during Keane's reign.
The 39-year-old Irishman led Town to the semi-final of the Carling Cup where they will play Arsenal.
The first leg of their last four clash against the Gunners is due to take place at Portman Road on Wednesday, 12 January, although Keane's replacement will first have to contend with an FA Cup third round tie at Chelsea on Sunday.
Speaking after the home defeat by Forest on Monday the former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland midfielder, said: "I'm doing my best and if my best isn't good enough, then I'll take the consequences.
"I don't expect you to be giving me phone calls if I do lose my job. It's the nature of the game."
Former Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan and Derby manager Paul Jewell is the favourite to take over at the Suffolk side.
Jewell has been out of work since resigning as manager of the Rams, after a 1-0 defeat by Ipswich, at the end of 2008.
Ipswich have called a press conference for 1100 GMT.
Keane arrived at Portman Road in April 2009, only two days after Jim Magilton was given the sack for failing to secure a play-off place.
That followed Keane's resignation from Sunderland five months earlier, where he led the Black Cats from the Championship relegation zone to the Premier League.
Given the task of winning promotion to the top flight within two years, in Keane's debut season in Suffolk Town battled against relegation after their worst start to a campaign.
The Tractor Boys failed to win any of their first 14 league games but rallied to finish 15th.
This past summer Keane failed in numerous attempts to attract high profile signings, with only four new faces being added to the squad.
Despite a reliance on loan players and a host of injuries the 2010-11 campaign started positively, with Ipswich losing just once in their opening eight Championship fixtures.
But a torrid run, including a 4-1 defeat by local rivals Norwich City, culminated with Town sliding down the table.
And Monday's loss to Forest was enough to persuade Evans that Keane's time at Portman Road should come to an end.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/i/ipswich_town/9346787.stm
