It's very suspicious to me like. He's in negotiations to sell the club (negotiating with at least one party). He's at a delicate stage of these negotiations. He doesn't yet know who will be running the club in the short term. He'll have some clarity by Friday. But instead of waiting a couple of days until he knows what the **** is happening he randomly goes out now and sacks the manager, and this just happens to coincide almost perfectly with the first major leak of the process (the Sun saying the takeover is off). Why wouldn't Donald wait? It's not as if he'll have much time to be thinking about new managers while he's still negotiating, and the decision might not be his when the negotiations finish!
The only logical thing I can draw from it is that one of the parties wanted Ross gone. Maybe Donald was keen to see him stay. The party threaten to walk, they leak info that they're done. Nixon prints it, genuinely believing it's accurate and they've walked away. Donald realises the backlash he'll get, Ross is quickly dismissed and one of the major issues is addressed (probably with more still to discuss)
They obviously work,then.
