Not many people have come out and said it. But amid all the talk about disloyalty and a lack of class, Manchester City’s owners should have fired him.   There were more than enough reasons to do so, if you chose to look. Plenty of situations where his face didn’t quite fit, plenty more where what he said only made things that bit more uncomfortable.   Alongside the bigwigs in Milan during last January’s transfer window, you sensed he was out of his depth. For all the talk about the desirability of signing the Brazilian superstar Kaka, he wouldn’t really have known how to handle all the new situations that would have arisen out of such an extraordinary, in the truest sense of the word, transfer deal. Image rights just seemed an alien concept to him.

His background was simply too different to the new oil-rich owners for whom he was working. He comes from an era where the superpowers in his field were different and what may have his worked in his old jobs, wasn’t necessarily going to work in his new one.

Man-management skills were lacking. If he was and is “a people person”, it wasn’t and isn’t these people. His occasionally abrasive and combative manner simply wasn’t going to work with everyone, and he hasn’t yet adapted. Whether he will in the future remains to be seen.

His job required a different mindset, a different personality, more self-awareness and more awareness that this was a different kind of job altogether.

Yes, amid all the talk about disloyalty and a lack of class, Man City’s owners should definitely have fired their Chief Executive, Garry Cook. And many more people should come out and say it.