[goldenHuddlestone]

Real Sociedad sacked coach Jose Mari Bakero on Thursday, one day after they lost 4-1 to second division Malaga in the first leg of a Kings Cup tie. "The board have decided to end the contract of Jose Mari Bakero," the Primera Liga club said on their Web site. Sociedad have made a miserable start to the season and prop up the league with two points from seven matches.

The club have not yet named a successor to the former Sociedad player, the first Primera Liga coach to be dismissed this season, but former Espanyol and Celta Vigo boss Miguel Angel Lotina is rated the early favourite. Bakero took charge after Gonzalo Arconada was sacked when the team slipped into the relegation zone in March. Sociedad avoided the drop by the skin of their teeth, finishing 16th.

Bakero spent eight seasons at Sociedad as a player and was part of the team that won back-to-back league titles in the early 1980s. He joined Barcelona in 1988, winning four more league titles, the Cup Winners Cup and the European Cup. A former Spain international, he was assistant coach to Louis van Gaal and Llorenc Serra Ferrer at Barcelona before taking his first full coaching role with Mexican side Puebla.