Leicester Tigers have sacked head coach Marcelo Loffreda after only one season in charge, the club have confirmed.
Leicester have parted company with head coach Marcelo Loffreda - and raised the possibility of South Africa's World Cup-winning supremo Jake White replacing him at Welford Road.
Loffreda, despite leading the Tigers to two finals this season, has gone just six months into what was thought to be a two-and-a-half year contract.
Leicester directors must now decide whether to pursue another overseas appointment, or keep their coaching structure in-house.
An internal reshuffle is possible, given that former England internationals Richard Cockerill and Neil Back were part of Loffreda's support staff, while another Leicester and England favourite Austin Healey has repeatedly been linked with a backs coaching job.
Loffreda though, who masterminded Argentina's third place in last autumn's World Cup - the Pumas beat France twice and Ireland - has paid the price for falling short of Tigers' immense standards.
He took the club to the Guinness Premiership and EDF Energy Cup finals at Twickenham - Leicester lost both to Wasps and the Ospreys respectively - and speculation has been rife about his future for weeks.
Announcing Loffreda's exit, Leicester chairman Peter Tom said: ''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 achieve the club's aspirations for the future.
''Marcelo arrived at Leicester Tigers in 2007 after leading Argentina to third place in the Rugby World Cup, and our decision has been taken with a degree of sadness.
''But we have taken this course of action in the best interests of the club, and we felt that this 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.
''No decision has been made on a new appointment, but we expect to have a new rugby structure in place ready for the players' return to pre-season training.''
Several of Leicester's first team squad are currently overseas, either with England in New Zealand or England Saxons at the Barclays Churchill Cup in North America.
But while his departure is unlikely to come as a shock, those players will inevitably feel a sense of guilt that his reign in the east midlands proved so short-lived.
A tepid performance in the EDF final was followed by Leicester producing erratic Premiership form.
They arrived at the regular season's final weekend needing victory over Harlequins to secure a Premiership play-off spot and Heineken Cup qualification.
But they trailed in injury time, facing the prospect of missing out on both goals, before wing Tom Varndell's dramatic try got them out of jail.
Leicester then produced a similarly unlikely win a week later, knocking Gloucester out of the play-offs courtesy of a last-gasp drop-goal by Andy Goode.
The Premiership final though, proved to be a game too far, and Leicester ended the campaign trophy-less, in stark contrast to the previous campaign when they won two major trophies and were Heineken Cup runners-up.
White has not been involved in coaching since his Springboks contract expired following South Africa's 15-6 World Cup final victory over England in Paris.
He has been linked with several subsequent jobs, including head coach of England and Ireland, and Leicester - five times Premiership champions and twice Heineken Cup winners during rugby's professional era - could prove an attractive proposition.
Loffreda though, has found to his cost that silverware means everything at Welford Road, whether you are an established and successful international coach or not.
Where the Tigers are this summer:
For England, Tom Croft, Ben Kay and Tom Varndell all tour with the senior side to New Zealand, while Richard Blaze, Jordan Crane, George Chuter and Ollie Smith will feature for the Saxons.
Geordan Murphy flew to New Zealand to join his Ireland team-mates immediately after the Guinness Premiership Final last weekend and is on the bench for the Test against the All Blacks this Saturday.
Current Tigers Ian Humphreys and Frank Murphy, who will be joining Magners League sides Ulster and Connacht respectively on their return, are in action for Ireland A, although full back Johne Murphy has been forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury.
Dave Young is also taking part in the Churchill Cup with Scotland A, as is Ignacio Mires for the Argentina Pumas, while Marcos Ayerza starts for Argentina's senior side against Scotland's first team on Saturday and Alesana Tuilagi could fly to Fiji for Samoa's Pacific Nations opener.
Away from senior rugby, a number of young Tigers will be representing England this summer. Gregor Gillanders and Ben Youngs are in the U-20 squad for this month's IRB World Junior Championships in Wales, with four members of next year's academy set-up preparing to tour Argentina with the U-18 side.
Andrew Forsyth, Sam Harrison and Will Hurrell have all been named in former Newcastle boss' John Fletcher's first U-18 squad after impressive performances in the recent Six Nations Festival, while academy newcomer Joe Cobden, who joins Tigers ahead of next season, is also included.
England U-18 play four games against Mendoza, Tucuaman, Buenos Aires and an international test against Argentina. The dates and venues for these fixtures are still to be confirmed but England will be in Argentina from July 14 to August 6.