Bordeaux have suspended coach Gustavo Poyet for a week after his angry outburst at club bosses over their transfer policy, the French side announced on Friday.
“Technically everything is possible,” said club president Stephane Martin in reference to Poyet’s future beyond next week, with a sacking looking a distinct possibility.
The decision to suspend the Uruguayan comes after he launched a furious tirade at the Bordeaux board over their decision to sell the striker Gaetan Laborde to Ligue 1 rivals Montpellier.
Poyet had hoped to have Laborde available for Thursday night’s the second leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie away to Mariupol of Ukraine, which his team won 2-1 to progress to the play-off round 5-2 on aggregate.
“This is my worst day at the club. What the club have done with Gaetan Laborde is a disgrace,” an angry Poyet said at his post-match press conference.
“I told the club not to let him go as long as we haven’t signed someone else.”
Eric Bedouet, one of his assistants, will prepare the team for Sunday’s derby match at Toulouse, and Bordeaux are also due to go to Belgium to face Genk in the Europa League next Thursday.
Poyet was only appointed by the south-western side in January and he roused them to European qualification with six wins in their final seven games last season.
However, the 50-year-old former Sunderland, AEK Athens, Betis and Shanghai Shenhua coach has regularly criticised the club for a lack of transfer activity over the summer.
The six-time French champions had already sold Brazilian winger Malcom to Barcelona for 41 million euros ($48 million) before Laborde’s departure.
On Thursday they completed the loan signing of Barcelona B full-back Sergi Palencia.
It now seems that he may not play under Poyet, who also ran into trouble at one of his previous clubs. In 2013, he was suspended for an alleged breach of contract and later fired by English side Brighton and Hove Albion.
The latest difficulty comes with Bordeaux expected to be sold to an American consortium in the coming weeks.