Steve Gibson (talking to the News of the World): "Yes, I did go out there. Yes, I did make a list, yes, I did make discreet inquires while the manager was in place.
"But I told Gareth all of that when I relieved him of his duties. I sat down with him and I was totally honest with him, I thought if I was Gareth Southgate, what questions would I ask and I tried to answer the questions before he asked them.
"My first line of responsibility was the club. I wasn't happy with the situation. I wasn't happy having to do it. But it had to be done.
"One day I woke up and thought: 'I'm not happy about that, I'm not happy about that and I'm not happy about that.' My faith had gone.
"It was as simple as that. There was no one event. It was a series of events.
"My job is to make the hard decisions and to implement those decisions. We had papered over the cracks at the start of the season."