Steve Kean and Chris Coleman found themselves out of work last week after 20 years' combined service to Fulham. They could easily have been joined by a former Craven Cottage favourite, John Collins, after a matter of months in his first managerial job at Hibernian.

The Welshman and Scot who reawakened one of London's sleeping giants were disposed of as hurriedly as the Harrods winter collection by Mohamed Al Fayed after a series of threatening, if hardly catastrophic, results in the Premiership.

Collins, by comparison, has endured a career's worth of drama and intrigue in a few short months at Easter Road. A Machiavellian plot from within the dressing room, followed by the chairman's foolish decision to grant the rebels an audience, have tarnished the recent collection of his first piece of silverware in management.

The ringleaders have been identified and, already, Michael Stewart has had his contract terminated and Simon Brown informed his will not be renewed. An uneasy truce has been called and as Kean ponders his next move, he expressed his support to Collins, who profited from a less underhand revolution at Fulham.

"Without knowing the mechanics of the situation, it is always the case that you would like the perfect scenario of allowing change to be administered slowly and from pre-season," said Kean, in between settling-up with his previous employers.

"If you try to do things too quickly, there is always the danger that those from the previous regime become unsettled because they think it never used to be done like this'. You have to do things gradually in order to adapt the minds but it is difficult to do when you arrive mid-season.

"The ones who warm to your methods, you keep and the others who don't, you say no hard feelings. I think that is the problem John has encountered.

"Without a shadow of a doubt he is the most dedicated professional I have ever worked with. His attention to detail in diet and everything else was unbelievable, right down to reading about recovery techniques and optimum sleep patterns.

"He would go on to the field confident that nobody else was as prepared as him. It could be frustrating for him that the players he now manages are not as understanding of or receptive to that preparation."

Coleman and Kean were elevated from the coaching staff after Jean Tigana's methods failed to elicit a response from the squad. Faced with an ominous downturn in results, a pall in the dressing room and the potentially ruinous threat of relegation, the duo agreed drastic times called for drastic measures.

"I know all about inheriting somebody else's team," said Kean. "We respected what Jean had done but results were bad and we had to change. We actually fell out with Jean because he saw us undoing all his work, bringing back players, like John and Lee Clark, who had been left out and changing the formation. It worked and we were able to build on that foundation over a period.

"It will be the same for John. It will make or break him and, knowing John, I'm sure it will make him. I haven't spoken to him about it but I'm sure we will. I wanted him to get on with the job first but the experience will stand him in good stead."

Kean has earned deep respect for his work at Fulham, originally in overseeing their youth academy after a nomadic playing career.

For all Al Fayed's millions, Fulham have become a feeder club for the Premiership elite. Edwin van der Sar, Louis Saha, Steed Malbranque and Louis Boa Morte are just some of the players who have been sold on. Coleman and Kean spent £20m in the transfer market and raised £40m.

Kean takes pride in one statistic: under their leadership, Fulham have never fallen into relegation territory. Given the perilous position of West Ham United, who spent £18m in the last transfer window, and Manchester City, he is at a loss to explain the timing of the dismissal.

"I was totally surprised," he said. "Clubs with far greater resources than ours are in much bigger trouble than us but when you go to within four points of the teams in relegation territory the board start to get twitchy and I think that's what happened."

Their big summer signing, Jimmy Bullard, sustained a horrendous injury at the start of the season and has been unavailable since, while an injury to goalkeeper Antti Niemi, contributed to a 12-game spell in which more than 20 goals were conceded.

"We never moaned about it, but we were without one major player for practically the whole season and Antti's injury affected us badly, too," he said. "The other issue is that while we knew we were a selling club, we would buy a player for £1m, sell him for £5m and then have to get two or three players in with that money.

"If the board wanted us to be a top-10 club we needed the resources to do that. If we achieved that, the 10 teams below us would have had bigger crowds and only three or four would have smaller budgets."

Coleman has already been linked with a return to management at Leicester City, while Kean could go it alone. He has had enquiries about coaching in Portugal and also the vacant Livingston job.

"I have been speaking with Chris every day and I am open-minded about what happens next," he said. "I have had a few calls already, both individually and with Chris, and we will see what happens."