In the space of 24 hours, two La Liga clubs fired their coaches.

Last-place Gimnastic Tarragona dropped Julio Cesar Sunday evening after its 3-2 defeat at home to Real Mallorca. On Monday, Athletic Bilbao dumped Felix Sarriugarte after its 3-1 loss at home to Sevilla left it third from last in the La Liga standings. Sarriugarte had only been promoted from the Athletic reserve team last summer to replace the former Spain coach Javier Clemente as head coach.

Last month, Real Sociedad, Athletic's Basque rival, made the first coaching change of the Spanish season when it fired Jose Mari Bakero and replaced him with Miguel Angel Lotina.

Spain's tally of three fired coaches matches that of Italy's Serie A. Winless Ascoli is looking for a coach to replace Attilio Tesser following a third straight defeat suffered over the weekend. Torino replaced Giovanni De Biasi with Alberto Zaccheroni few days before the first Serie A opener, while Chievo Verona, also seeking its first win, dropped Giuseppe Pillon and replaced him with Luigi Del Neri after six games.

In other major coaching moves on the European scene this fall ...

Only one manager has been replaced in England's Premier League so far this season. Les Reed took over at Charlton, succeeding Iain Dowie. At Hannover, the longtime German home of American Steve Cherundolo, Coach Peter Neururer was sacked and replaced by Dieter Hecking. In France, struggling Monaco fired Hungarian Laszlo Boloni and replaced him with Laurent Banide. Boloni wasn't unemployed for a long time. In early November, he was named Hungarian national team coach.