Fabrizio Ravanelli has been sacked as coach of Ajaccio, the French Ligue 1 club have confirmed. The Italian only took up the reins at the start of the season but the Corsicans have failed to fire and lie second from bottom with just one win from 12 matches.

A 3-1 defeat at home to Valenciennes on Saturday marked a fourth successive league loss for Ajaccio and club president Alain Orsoni felt he had no other choice than to let former Juventus and Middlesbrough striker Ravanelli go.

"We have decided to stop our collaboration with Fabrizio Ravanelli and (his assistant) Giampiero Ventrone," Orsoni told the media. "This is a decision that was not easy to make from a human point of view. I like these two men, I wanted it to work. During my presidency I have never seen staff work so hard, not to mention the hours they put in. They took their task to heart. However, I was forced to make a decision in the interests of my position as club president.

"The result (against Valenciennes) has not influenced my choice. This is something that has been thought through and was decided after the defeat to Nantes (on 19 October). I'm not saying this is necessarily the right solution, only time will tell, but I had to do something."

Ravanelli himself hinted all was not well within the camp as he spoke of his departure.

"I'm really disappointed, it hurts," he told Canal+. "But that's life in football. I worked and tried to make sure it worked, but it did not work. I'm not angry. We had a lot of problems, I never had the whole team."

Ajaccio will hold a press conference on Monday morning where they are expected to announce an interim coach.