One hundred and sixty-two days.
Less than half a year. Also the amount of time Frank De Boer lasted at Inter Milan and Crystal Palace.
But how do De Boer’s spells in Italy and England compare, aside from the fact they both ended in a P45 form?
Transfers
De Boer was only hired by Inter on 9 August, by which point the club had already signed Ever Banega, Caner Erkin, Dodo, Marcelo Brozovic, Gianluca Caprari, Stevan Jovetic, Miranda, Christian Ansaldi and Antonio Candreva.
So the only transfers you can attribute to De Boer are Gabriel Barbosa, who joined from Santos, and Joao Mario, who was Inter’s biggest signing of the summer when he moved from Sporting CP.
Mario was an undisputed starter in De Boer’s 14 games in charge, while Gabriel had to settle for two substitute appearances.
Hardly emphatic.
The purse strings were tighter at Palace, but De Boer was still allowed to spend around £30million, the bulk of which went on Mamadou Sakho, who never played under the Dutchman.
Jairo Riedwald was Palace’s other major signing, having played under De Boer at Ajax, but injury limited the Dutch defender to just one start, in the opening day 3-0 loss against Huddersfield.
Where De Boer does deserve credit is convincing Ruben Loftus-Cheek to spend a season on loan at Selhurst Park and having the bravery to play the 21-year-old.
His Player of the Month award won’t have gone unnoticed by Chelsea, although there weren’t too many other candidates he had to fight off at Palace.
Pre-season
If ever there’s proof that pre-season friendlies mean nothing it’s De Boer’s record at Inter and Palace.
His pre-season campaign in Italy consisted of five wins, one draw and just one loss, albeit a pretty heavy 6-1 defeat at the hands of Spurs.
In England, pre-season was navigated with just one loss and included a 2-0 win against West Brom. A sign of things to come? Was it f***.
Goals
We’ll do De Boer a favour and take his Europa League campaign with Inter out of the equation, as Palace didn’t have a run in Europe to compare with.
De Boer’s 11 Serie A games resulted in 14 goals, at an average of 1.3 a game. Boring, even by Louis van Gaal’s standards.
His four Premier League games with Palace? A whopping zero goals. Watching Palace play effectively became an unintentional cure for insomnia.
What happened after he left?
Palace fans will now be praying for the infamous (and statistically disproved) upturn in form following the appointment of a new manager.
But what happened when De Boer left Inter?
Inter only won one of Stefano Pioli’s first four games in charge, but then went on a nine game unbeaten run in Serie A and Europe.
That form trailed off and after seven games without a win, and Europe a distant memory, Pioli was also dismissed.
Ominous signs for Roy Hodgson?
The moment that cost De Boer his job?