Steven Naismith has been away from Hearts for two months now.
The 38-year-old has had time to reflect on his first job in management after a terrific first season which brought a finish of third, before a miserable start to the current campaign.
The Jambos have moved on with Neil Critchley in charge and had a slight upturn, and Naismith must now do the same.
He admits to frustrations around being sacked but also to some mistakes by himself as a rookie boss.
Steven Naismith on Hearts exit
After an encouraging display in drawing against Rangers on the opening day of the Premiership, Hearts went on a rotten run of five league defeats in a row, as well as losing to Falkirk in the League Cup and Viktoria Plzen in Europa League qualifying.
Patience with Naismith was wearing thin among the fan base and when that first win continued to prove elusive, there looked to be an inevitability around how things ended.
He was eventually let go after a defeat to St Mirren in September.
Reflecting on his time in charge at Tynecastle, he the former Scotland striker admits some mistakes in terms of recruiting players that took time to settle and also in terms of in-game situations.
He told the Warm-Up: “It’s disappointing. There’s a bit of frustration there because you do believe. We worked so hard over the previous year to bring success at the start which we managed to do.
“And then the reward of that is European football. You get to develop the squad a bit. We managed to do that, nobody complained about the recruitment over the summer.
“But then as a young manager you sign players at the start of the season and you think ‘brilliant, we’ve got this option and that option’. But probably the bit you can’t judge is how much time they’re going to take to settle.
“Nearly every player we signed, Hearts is a bigger club than where they came from. My experience of going to Rangers from Kilmarnock, it’s sink or swim time.
“Our first game against Rangers was excellent, all that was missing was the goal. Then we lose a couple of games, some bad decisions from me and individual errors cost us a lot.
“And then you’re trying to stem that tide and for me it’s small moments. Dundee United at home, we controlled the game and they scored late on with a deflected goal. And then that builds.”
It was a big job for Naismith to take on as his first in management and he admits he has a lot of reflection to do.
“A lot of people spoke about how big the job was before I took it,” he added. “I’ll evaluate what are the pros and cons of going into any job.
“It’s a high risk for me going in as a younger manager. Two things you need to do is one get success, but when you get it you need to keep it there. Because if you don’t pressure comes and you’re going to lose your job.
“That’s inevitably how it came about but I loved every minute of it. I loved every minute of it, I thought we did a good job, but at the cold end of it success and pressure and demands are there. If you don’t hit them you’re going to lose your job.
“So I’m comfortable with it all. I’ve reflected on a lot of the decisions, you do learn a lot. As a player you think you know it all. You go into coaching and you think ‘that’s different to what I thought it was like as a player.’
“And then again when you become a manager, it’s different again. But I loved every minute of it, I loved the intensity. But it was disappointing because Hearts do have a good squad and I think they’ll come good.”
Did Naismith know Hearts sack was coming?
Naismith insists he had no idea the sack was coming despite how tough things were on the pitch.
He says after that defeat to the Buddies he was still planning for the future and thinking he could turn things around. But then the call came.
He added: “I don’t think you know or I certainly didn’t know. You look at results and you go ‘right if we get a result here’. If you don’t it builds the pressure.
“I was probably thinking you’ll get to the international break because there was three games there and there were probably games that you’re more likely to look at and go ‘right, Ross County at home, the European game’ and then the big one was going to be Aberdeen.
“But even after the St Mirren game when we get beat 2-1 I’m sitting there really still believing that I can turn this round and I can make this better.
“And then when you have the phone call the next day that is what it is but I don’t think there’s a set way to for it to happen or how it comes.
“The conversation’s happen and I think if you’re honest it’s it’s the best way you can of go about.”