Perhaps, in the end, it was all proving too much. In his post sacking interviews on Sky and Talk Sport, Paul Merson was already looking more relaxed and better than he had for weeks, if not months.

His attitude had changed too, in that he admitted that he may have lost the dressing room, but refused to blame the players, saying that he had brought every one of them in and, therefore, it was his responsibility.

Contrast that with what he had said before, as he went through the highs and the lows of the job:

26 March 2005 - The Express

That’s why it hurts. If I didn’t take it seriously then I wouldn’t give two tosses. If I lose the manager’s job here, I won’t take another. I want to get to next season, when I’ve got my own team. If it isn’t going well then and I’m getting booed off, at least I can think maybe it’s me, maybe I haven’t got a clue. The players at Walsall will be the ones I rate, the ones I’ve watched on video, the ones I’ve travelled up the motorway all nights to see in the reserves. Then I’ll be judged.

21 May 2005 - The Birmingham Post

The job is only as easy as the players you have. If you have 11 good players in this division you can sit back. I have said all season that Arsène Wenger could not have come here and done any better

25 September 2005 - The Birmingham Post

When this team clicks, you’ll know it. I know we’re not a million miles off and I believe we’ll still be in the top six.

17 Nov 2005 - The Sun

I am just putting in the groundwork, gaining the experience and becoming a better manager every day. It’s impossible to get worse! The difference for those at the top, your Mourinhos and Arsene Wengers, is that they don’t have to teach the players to play properly

5 Jan 2006 - Walsall Advertiser

At the end of the day you have to look at the players on the pitch. They should have done better and if they are not prepared to do better then they have to go.

Now? He seems far more retrospective and prepared to admit that he failed and that he has to carry the can for those failures. The cockiness and confidence of the 26th March quote from The Express has disappeared. We know that he has said that he exists for football, but it seems to me that the pressures of management are too much for him. If he wants to stay in the game, perhaps he should be looking at punditry, or coaching at a higher level. Managing in the lower reaches of the footballing pyramid needs a strength of character that maybe is not there.

Whatever else, it’s time for everyone to move on.