Steve Morison believes he has left Cardiff City in a better place than when he found it following his shock sacking last weekend.
A full week on from his surprise axe, Morison was speaking on Sky Sports News and reflecting on his sudden departure from Cardiff City Stadium.
The Bluebirds hierarchy acted swifty following their 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town last Saturday, releasing a statement on Sunday afternoon that they had parted company with the former Wales international. Mark Hudson has been placed in temporary charge, with his first press conference due to take place this Thursday.
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The club are in 18th place in the Championship following a poor start to the campaign. Morison, who was summarising Wales' Nations League game with Poland, said on Sky that he understood it was a results-based industry. He said: "Ultimately I didn't do good enough I suppose. I was tasked with making lots of changes. I felt like we did that on the whole, from staff to playing personnel.
"Changing styles, lowering age groups, lowering wage bills. Personally I thought we were on that path. There were very close games we lost, we could have taken points out of.
"Games we drew that we could have won. I leave thinking we're five off of the play-offs, we're a penalty goal away from possibly going on to beat Huddersfield or drawing the game and if someone had said to me at the start of the week that you'd go to Middlesbrough and Huddersfield and take four points, for example, you'd have snapped their hands off.
"I leave, gutted to lose my job, no-one likes to have that tag of being sacked over their head, but the reaction from it from myself has given me a lot of confidence, it's been one hell of a job, I can definitely say I left the club in a better place."
Morison oversaw a huge squad overhaul in the summer that saw 17 players signed and a host leave for pastures new, and he explained it was a tough situation to handle.
"It's not only 17 players we had in, it was the amount that went out, the characters that went out, the amount of league games that had left. Initially we had settled on 15, the West Brom game we arguably lose our best player of the start of the season who had been on fire in Jamilu Collins, so we had to replace him quickly which we did.
"And then we'd been looking for a striker all summer then we got one the day before the deadline, then unfortunately I only had a week to work with the player.
"I feel like the club is in a better place and as a marker I suppose that's definitely a better place to be than leaving the club in a worse state."
So what next for the former Millwall man? A swift return to management beckons, he says.
"Just learn, reflect on anything I could have done better," he said about the immediate future. "100 per cent (a return to management), I can't wait, you enjoy your time when you are doing it, as soon as it goes away you have a couple of days to get over it but I am a very focused and purposeful individual and the next challenge now, I think I've shown I've done a hell of a lot in short space of time, I'll definitely be a better manager for it."
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