Swansea City captain Ashley Williams feels like he has lost a mate with the sacking of manager Garry Monk.
Williams and Monk were together at Swansea since 2008, initially as team-mates before the latter took the reins as manager.
In 2013, the duo was part of the team that lifted the League Cup.
However, a run of one win in 11 Premier League games brought the professional relationship to an end when Monk was sacked last week.
As captain and a personal friend of Monk s, Williams said the sacking had hit him particularly hard.
It s been even more difficult than a normal kind of situation because he s a mate you feel like you have let him down, Williams told BBC Radio.
Then he goes so you have lost a mate that you see every day. It s just tough really.
Williams said he struggled to remember when the club last went through such a poor run of form.
No football player liked to go through this situation it s even worse because we haven t found ourselves like this for such a long time, he said.
You get used to doing so well and it s a shock at times like this.
We did so much talking and meetings and phone calls just trying to figure out what it was, what s different from the start of the season and last season.
In the end we ran out of time with that manager.
