Sam Allardyce has on several occasions been termed as a specialist escape artist but it seems time has caught up with the former England manager.
When he embarked on his mission to save West Brom from relegation in December 2020, he knew this was not going to be an easy task.
The man who used to bristle at being branded a survival expert had been parachuted in to save the Baggies, his eighth Premier League club, from the drop but he has failed in the mission this time round.
Allardyce Had previously guided Bolton into Europe and led West Ham to promotion, achievements that helped earn him a shot, albeit briefly, at the England job.
But it is his exploits in keeping Blackburn, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Everton up that appear to define him.
"At some of the clubs we've only done until the end of the season. I've said to the owners 'now I've saved you, go and find the man you want'," he said after being named the West Brom manager.
"That's why I've moved on, and the clubs have moved on. And then later down the line someone comes along and says 'Sam's done it before, can he do it again?'.
"In the early years it wasn't like that. It was about building your reputation as a good manager through all the divisions, and finally building a reputation by taking Bolton to where they were."
"That's the stimuli you need," said Allardyce, who stepped down from the England job in 2016 after just one match following a newspaper sting. "It gives you energy. It makes you feel worthwhile,"
"When you are used to the level of scrutiny I've been under all these years it gets embedded in your DNA."
On Wednesday May 19, West Brom announced that the former England boss was leaving his role as manager at the end of the current campaign.
Defeat to Arsenal meant that West Bromwich Albion were officially relegated from the Premier League. The Baggies’ relegation had been a long time coming, and although a run of good results including wins over Chelsea and Southampton gave them a short stay of execution, the gap between West Brom and the pack of teams above them has been too big for most of the season.
West Brom’s relegation is also the first that manager Sam Allardyce has suffered since his time at Notts County in 1997.
Allardyce's final match in charge will be away to Leeds United on Sunday.
His assistant Sammy Lee and first-team coach Robbie Stockdale will also leave the club.