The New York Times tried putting a horse’s head in Jerry Yang’s bed Saturday, prophesying that his “days as Yahoo’s CEO are numbered.”

In a piece entitled “Oh Jerry, It’s No Longer Your Baby,” it excoriated him for “shafting” Yahoo shareholders by running off Microsoft on purpose and turning Yahoo into a Google “pawn.”

Then TechCrunch – in a piece reproduced in the Washington Post – picked up the chant and called the Times article the “final straw” as far as bad press goes and said that Yang was doomed.

“Yang will step down, our sources say,” it wrote. “It may be next week or it may be next month, but it’s going to happen.”

The blog conjectures that Yahoo may whistle up either long-gone Yahoo president Jeff Mallet or equally long-gone former COO Dan Rosenweig to replace him since current president Sue Decker is too close to Yang and has no operational experience.

The Wall Street Journal also drew up a list of possible Yang replacements.

• Yahoo Stockholders Don’t Like Jerry Yang THAT Much