The Raiders fired coach Dennis Allen on Monday night on the heels of his team’s 0-4 start and no obvious signs of the progress he expected this season.

A Raiders spokesman confirmed via text message that Allen had been fired.

Repeated phone calls to owner Mark Davis on Monday went unanswered. He also didn’t respond to a voice mail seeking a return call. Allen could not be reached for comment.

The initial report of the firing came from Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer, a person Allen is close to from his days with the New Orleans Saints and someone he confides in on a regular basis.

This is the ideal time for an in-season coaching change. The Raiders don’t play Sunday, giving a new coach the better part of two weeks to acclimate to his role.

Offensive line coach Tony Sparano and offensive coordinator Greg Olson are the logical candidates from the Raiders staff.

Sparano, who turns 53 on Oct. 7, coached the Miami Dolphins from 2008-11. The Dolphins compiled a 29-32 record under Sparano.

He has coached the Raiders offensive line the past two seasons. Sparano also was a college head coach at New Haven from 1994-98.

Allen was the 18th head coach in Raiders history — Art Shell had two stints. Most of those coaches ended up being fired by Al Davis. Allen is the first coach hired while Mark Davis was the owner who subsequently got fired.

Davis said late last season that 2013 marked the end of a two-year deconstruction phase of a team that went 8-8 in 2011 but faced severe salary-cap problems as well as a lack of draft picks from a series of moves made in previous seasons.

The Raiders entered this past offseason flush with the most salary-cap room in league history, which enabled the team to sign a slew of free agents and a full complement of draft picks.

But Allen and the Raiders have failed to get the desired production out of most of those veterans signed this offseason — Justin Tuck, LaMarr Woodley, Maurice Jones-Drew, Antonio Smith, Carlos Rogers, Tarell Brown and others.

Logic dictated that the Raiders needed to fare well in the early part of their schedule if they were going to have a successful season, because the opponents get tougher from here on out.

Instead, the Raiders lost to the New York Jets, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. The Jets are 1-3, the Texans are fresh from a 2-14 campaign, and the Dolphins had lost two straight games before they thrashed the Raiders 38-14 on Sunday.

Allen was hired as the replacement for Hue Jackson, who was fired by Mark Davis and general manager Reggie McKenzie after the 2011 season.

The Raiders won four games in each of Allen’s first two seasons and recorded an 8-28 mark during his two-plus seasons. The Jacksonville Jaguars at 6-30 are the only team with a worse record during that span.

By comparison, the Raiders posted an 8-8 record in Jackson’s one season as head coach. They needed a victory in their regular-season finale to make the playoffs. Instead, they got blasted by the San Diego Chargers.

The Raiders returned home Monday from a disastrous trip to London to play the Dolphins, with Davis and McKenzie remaining silent about Allen’s job status.

Glazer reported that Allen was fired in a phone call after having spent 11 hours on a flight with the men who fired him.

The Raiders made an in-season coaching change only twice since the AFL and NFL merged. Both times, it was Davis’ late father, Al, who did the firing.

In 1989, he fired Mike Shanahan four games into the season. He did likewise with Lane Kiffin in 2008.

Those firings had just as much to do with Al Davis feuding with his coaches as it did with the team’s on-field performance. Mark Davis had been adamant about letting McKenzie do most of the communicating with Allen.

Defensive tackle Smith and running back Jones-Drew on Sunday spoke out against a coaching change, saying that such a move signifies that the season is over.