Chicago ? Frustrated that yet another talent-laden team fell short of the postseason, the Chicago White Sox decided it was time to change directions.

And manager Jerry Manuel was the first to be left behind.

Manuel was fired Monday, a day the White Sox originally hoped to spend getting ready for the playoffs. But after taking a two-game lead in the American League Central Sept. 9, the White Sox collapsed stunningly, losing 10 of their next 15 to finish four games behind Minnesota at 86-76.

“This wasn’t a case of not having enough talent,” general manager Kenny Williams said Monday. “It’s very difficult at this time to sit here, knowing the type of talent we had and what possibly could have happened if we would have just gotten into the dance,” he said. “To sit here and have to go through this is very difficult. But you have to start looking at yourself in the mirror.”

While he refused to criticize Manuel, Williams said the team needed to change its “voice and direction.”

There will be changes on the field, too, though Williams said he hoped to keep his pitching staff intact and has made re-signing Bartolo Colon a priority.

The search for a new manager begins immediately, and Williams hopes to choose someone after the World Series ends in late October. All of Manuel’s coaching staff will be retained except for Bruce Kimm, the third-base coach.

“Jerry’s a solid man, everybody knows that,” pitching coach Don Cooper said. “Sometimes tough things happen to good people. You see it every day in the real world. Nobody’s happy about this.”

Manuel’s dismissal hardly was a surprise. Though he never confirmed it, he said his goodbyes over the last week and spoke openly about his desire to manage again.

“It was a tough summer for me personally, but I wouldn’t trade it,” he said after Sunday’s season finale in Kansas City. “I came here to be a servant, not a celebrity. Obviously, that changed, but I don’t have any regrets.”

Reached at home Monday, Manuel declined to comment.

While his players said Manuel wasn’t responsible for their shortcomings, it was clear someone would take the blame for the team not making the playoffs.

On paper, the White Sox had the best team in the AL Central. They’d acquired Colon and Billy Koch in the offseason, and they bolstered an already potent offense by trading for Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett July 1.

With Frank Thomas, Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez, the White Sox should have cruised to a title in the weak AL Central.

Instead, they got off to a slow start, and were 81/2 games back by the first week of June. Though they rallied and were in first place as recently as Sept. 15, they were annoyingly inconsistent. They went 11-8 against both the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, and 4-2 against the New York Yankees.

And after taking the first two games of a four-game series against the Twins in Chicago earlier this month, the White Sox dropped the next two. The following week, they were swept in Minnesota to all but seal their fate.

“At times, we lost our focus,” Williams said. “(The Twins), quite simply, went out and grinded their way and busted their tails and scraped and scratched their way into knocking us right out of this thing.

“And I’ve got much respect for them for doing that.”

After the White Sox officially were eliminated Tuesday, Williams said he told Manuel he wouldn’t be brought back for the last year of his contract.

Manuel was 500-471 in six seasons in Chicago, putting him fourth on the team’s all-time victory list. The White Sox were .500 or better in each of the past four seasons, and finished below second place only once under Manuel, in 2001.