​Napoli have sacked manager Carlo Ancelotti despite the club’s progression to the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday night. 

The Neapolitans beat Genk 4-0 at home to seal their progress through to the knockout rounds of Europe’s elite competition, but a poor run of recent form and shambolic ‘title challenge’ have seen Ancelotti relieved of his duties, with Gennaro Gattuso expected to replace him imminently. 

A club tweet on Tuesday night read: “​SSC Napoli has decided to revoke the role of technical manager of the first team from Mr. Carlo Ancelotti. The feelings of friendship, esteem and mutual respect between the club, its president Aurelio De Laurentiis and Carlo Ancelotti remain intact.”

Ancelotti had said just hours before the statement was released that he had a Wednesday meeting scheduled with the club’s board, telling journalists: “Will I be on the touchline on Saturday? I hope so but we’ll see with the board tomorrow.

“We will discuss the situation at the moment and make the right decision for Napoli. I have no decisions to make. The president will decide whether to move forward or not. I will never resign. I have never done it in my career and never will.”

Ancelotti has been linked with the vacant managerial posts at ​Arsenal and ​Everton in recent days, after Unai Emery and Marco Silva were relieved of their respective duties. 

I Partenopei occupy seventh position in the Serie A table, 17 points behind leaders Inter following a run of no wins in seven league matches.

In November, their sub-par displays saw president Aurelio de Laurentiis schedule extra training for the entire squad, only for Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon to stage a mutiny and convince their teammates to ignore the owner’s orders.

For more from ​Chris Deeley, follow him on Twitter at ​@ThatChris1209!

Let’