The seemingly inevitable has finally happened. The dismissal of John Aloisi as head coach has been called for by many fans for a number of weeks including myself.

The removal of the coach for poor team performances is indeed an easy option and does seemingly make one individual the scapegoat of the club’s disastrous season thus far and including the tail end of last season.

I have no doubt that Aloisi’s passion was fully invested in seeing the club prosper and succeed on the field. As an inaugural player he is probably as close to a club legend that is possible for a club in just its fourth season.

The disastrous string of results that have come under his guidance have placed the club into this most unfortunate position where Aloisi had to be dismissed.

I believe that Aloisi was rushed into the top job before he was ready. If the Heart board wanted to boost the chances of Aloisi achieving success as coach then he needed to serve more of an apprenticeship than just one season coaching the youth squad.

Such a bad run of results leaving the club languishing winless at the foot of the table will inevitably turn the bulk of the fan base against the coach in frustration. Fans are at the end of the lifeblood of any football club but especially to Melbourne Heart trying to sustain interest in a highly competitive sporting market.

The board this week faced a tough decision. They could stick by Aloisi in the hope that results turn around but knowing that fans would be increasingly frustrated and their support would be in jeopardy. The option they took this week was to part ways with Aloisi which will at least provide brief respite for suffering fans and perhaps save some face for Aloisi’s future coaching prospects.

Simply said, the board this week has made a decision of wisdom will be never really known. The circumstances leading to this decision are less than desirable and people will have been left unhappy either way.

If any lesson is to be learnt is that if a club is to appoint a popular club figure to the coaching position the decision must be thought through and the appointee needs to have the backing of adequate experience, otherwise that appointee can easily be turned against if results go astray.

These circumstances then leave a bitter after-taste for the club having their hand forced against a club’s favourite son.