The Hearts trigger has been pulled - with a look to what comes next already commencing.
After a 2-1 loss at St Mirren left Steven Naismith staring at eight straight losses, the Tynecastle board have opted to sack him and his coaching staff. It ends his reign as head coach after a slow start to the campaign that has them bottom of the Premiership.
Ross County, Dinamo Minsk and Aberdeen come before the next international break. And possible new investor Tony Bloom could also have a hand in who comes into the Hearts hotseat next.
Eight Scottish football pundits have provided their takes on the sacking - with one possible next manager candidate getting plenty of approval. Take a look.
1. Michael Stewart (Premier Sports)
“I'm not surprised. It just shows you there is not a great deal of sentiment that can be shown in football in regards to what happened last season. This season has not been good enough and I think there is a good base of a squad there but there needs to be some adjustments to it. Eight defeats in a row is a record I don't feel anybody could survive." | SNS Group
2. Stephen McGinn (Sportsound)
“I was at the game and around the 70th minute the Hearts fans almost united as one to let their feeling be known. I actually thought Hearts were the better team in the first half but three set piece goals in the game is very tight margins. I think at any point, third in the league last year going to fifth is going to be a tricky enough game but it has been a really terrible run and you're not really sure what his best team is and I'm sure that's a horrible place to be in as a coach.” | SNS Group
3. Charlie Mulgrew (Premier Sports)
“At a club like Hearts if you don't win in a long time then the writing is on the wall. Steven won't be surprised either. Only Hearts knew what the long term plan was and you need to question why they're not sticking by that. When you don't get results in football that's the nature of the game.” | SNS Group
4. Allan Preston (centre, Sportsound)
“I'm one of the 8,500 that puts money in every month to the Foundation of Hearts and I agree Steven had to go. You wonder what's going on at the training field if in every single game they are losing goals from corners, from free-kicks, it was relentless. And I honestly think if Hibernian had had the start that Aberdeen have had, he would have been gone before. "A feeling I had was Steven Naismith didn't know his best 11, he didn't know his best formation. It was honestly baffling, some of the decisions being made. The recruitment has been DREADFUL. They've got nine central midfield players and one right-back. The recruitment at Hearts has not been good enough. Hopefully if Tony Bloom and his people come in that will get sorted out. And equally I also want them to be involved in the recruitment of the new manager. "If I was to pick one in Scotland it would be Derek McInnes. He did a great job at Aberdeen. He's certainly a very good contender, but I just think the way that the club are going now, with this new company, it looks like they're coming into Hearts for the recruitment, not just players, but managers. And then they go into things like with the new manager, what staff has he got, what personnel, what players has he got, can we fit a manager into that?" | SNS Group