Two managerial departures dominated our news agenda on Monday and as Jon Carter said in his comment piece on Luiz Felipe Scolari's sacking, one was certainly more surprising than the other.

Tony Adams' sacking came as a shock to only him, it seems. Weekend reports that Portsmouth chief exec Peter Storrie had been canvassing players' opinions on their boss showed the end was near if not already decided.

Scolari's removal, as dramatic as that of Jose Mourinho from the same club, was unexpected in the sense that few could see the Brazilian as a long-term appointment yet it was expected that he would see out this season at least. A quick casting of the mind back will show that the vibes from Stamford Bridge were similar to those that preceded the Portugese coach's exit in October 2007. Both felt sudden but the signs had been there for some time.

Scolari has been a stranger to TV post-match interviews in recent weeks with Ray Wilkins stepping into the breach in typically friendly and anodyne style. There have been whispers about players no longer enjoying their training as they once did under Mourinho and Steve Clarke. The latter, of course, has been praised for the impact he has had on West Ham's players when he joined Gianfranco Zola's mission at a troubled club. Then there have been the results and performances. A single point in matches against supposed "big four" clubs tells one story but so does a series of pallid home showings against Hull, Stoke and Newcastle.

With Aston Villa and Everton now looking capable of bridging the gap to the big four, Champions League qualification in fourth place - itself no gimme considering next season's shift in the structure of qualifiers for the group stage - looked like it could not be counted on. This season, Juventus now await in the competition that the club's owner covets most.

Rumours of Abramovich's loss of interest in his plaything, as commented on by our Insider at the weekend, and reports of his personal fortune descending in the eye of the financial storm ravaging the world, meant Scolari was never handed the funds made available to his predecessors. Even Avram Grant got to pay £15m for Nicolas Anelka while the loan deal for Ricardo Quaresma, rejected by Mourinho at Inter, showed that, along with reported billions of roubles, faith may already have been mislaid.

As a Brazilian, Scolari will know the sack is an occupational hazard. Rarely a week goes by in Brazilian football without "the dance of the coaches" being performed. On his arrival at the club, he made it clear that being sacked would not be the worst thing in the world because it would be lucrative. He need never work again but will surely regret that what started out as a hugely enjoyable samba soccer experiment at the Bridge ended so soon. His effusive and honest press appearances means that, like his predecessor, he will be missed by the media, whose warmth towards him often shielded his mounting problems.

Back to the drawing board at straitened Chelsea. Again. One thing that rarely guarantees success in football is a constant changing of the guard. Over five years in, and Abramovich does not seem to have learned a lesson he could gain by looking at any of his club's fiercest rivals.

What of Adams? Just over a hundred days ago, when Portsmouth turned to him as replacement for Harry Redknapp, I voiced my doubts about his abilities to motivate players who do not possess the drive he always displayed on the pitch. I take very little pleasure in being proved right. First of all, it was by no means the most fearless forecast I have made, though I perhaps believed he might get longer than 16 league matches.

Adams' media appearances have been difficult to watch; car crash TV We all know he is a man with demons but his raddled visage, added to a somewhat high-handed manner further complemented by some garbled psychobabble responses to stock questions gave an unsettling impression..

Over the weekend I caught a re-run of the 1989 2-0 Arsenal win at Anfield, that most amazing climax to an English league season, on ESPN Classic, our sister TV channel. The post-match interview with Arsenal's captain, none other than Tony Adams, was with a man almost totally unrecognisable from the current guise the then 22-year-old now adopts. Mature, respectful, calm in the face of total hysteria and with a totally different accent; Adams has changed completely since those days. A curious mid-Atlantic burr, a far-away stare and a propensity to go off on tangents are his latterday public persona.

Much water - and much else beside - has gone under the bridge since 1989. Yet Adams looked then like a young man who knew his own mind. Recent months, the performances of his team and those excruciating interviews offer the thought that the reverse has lately been true. A poor appointment in the first place, he was trapped in the headlights of a job beyond his capabilities

Adams, like Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle, Graeme Souness and, this season, Paul Ince and Roy Keane, looks likely to become another addition to the adage that great players rarely make great managers. He may resurface as a coach, as like the others he should still have plenty to offer the game. He is to be wished luck though perhaps some reading up on what humility is will do no harm to his future prospects.

Scolari, meanwhile, says he is staying in London. Another English club may yet take a chance on him. He may feel he has unfinished business.