Monaco have sacked vice-president and general manager Vadim Vasilyev

Monaco have sacked vice-president and general manager Vadim Vasilyev.

The 53-year-old's six-year spell, which included a first Ligue 1 title in 17 years and the rise of such stars as Kylian Mbappe and Fabinho, has been ended as president Dmitry Rybolovlev looks to arrest the club's current "crisis".

Monaco are currently 18th in the league and fighting to avoid relegation to the second tier after a poor start under Leonardo Jardim and then the disastrous, short stint of Thierry Henry at the helm.

Monaco vice president Vadim Vasilyev played a hand in appointing Thierry Henry as head coach last October

Rybolovlev says that, as part of his cleaning-up act, he personally saw to the return of Jardim as manager last month, admitting it was a mistake to sack him last October.

"It's time for change," he said. "And these changes affect not only the workforce, but also the leaders. So I made a decision that is very hard for me - that of releasing Vadim as vice-president and general manager of the club.

"I am very grateful for all he has done for our club and wish him all the best for the future. During the six years Vadim worked at Monaco, we have had many successes: for the first time in 17 years the club won the French league and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.

"However, important mistakes were made last year, which led to the worst sports results the club has had in seven years. Recently, I have been actively involved in managing and resolving club issues. I took a number of decisions that were difficult but necessary, in my opinion.

Monaco's sporting director Michael Emenalo, Monaco's Russian president Dmitriy Rybolovlev and Monaco's Russian vice club president Vadim Vasilyev

"In particular, I personally wanted to call Leonardo Jardim and apologise for the error made in October. I asked him to come back to the club to lead the team and I validated all his proposals on the arrival of new players during the winter transfer window."

Jardim won just one of his first nine Ligue 1 matches after a summer in which Monaco sold Fabinho to Liverpool and Thomas Lemar to Atletico Madrid among others, after parting with Mbappe to Paris Saint-Germain, and Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva to Manchester City in the summer of 2017.

Rybolovlev said: "This is not the first time AS Monaco is going through a period of crisis. Seven years ago, we already relieved the club of the very delicate situation in which it was located.

"We will try to strive again for such success. It will of course be difficult, but I want to do my utmost for that and I am convinced that these changes will allow us to achieve our goals."

"I intend to introduce a new candidate for the position of vice-president and general manager of the club on the AS Monaco Board of Directors on February 22nd.