MARTIN Allen was sat at the desk in his office at Meadow Lane only last Thursday. Well, his old office now, of course. He was attempting an impression of Fabio Capello, the former England manager, and it was not bad, though he looked more like Don Vito Corleone from the Godfather as he pushed his jaw out, expressively.

"If you win you are the best. If you lose you are nothing," he said in his best Italian accent. It was hilarious. Allen was always funny. "That is the life of a manager," he added, philosophically.

Allen had less than a month earlier attended a course for Uefa Pro Licence managers at Wokefield Park in Reading, his hometown, at which Capello gave a speech on the successes and failures in his career and he had used those very words: "If you win you are the best. If you lose you are nothing." Allen had written them on a piece of paper and pinned it to a wall opposite his desk, in fact.

Allen will, perhaps, be thinking of those two extremities today, after being sacked as the manager of Notts County two days ago.

It was a huge shock when the Magpies announced the decision to axe Allen. Huge.

Ray Trew, the club's owner and chairman, has now sacked three managers in two years and Allen's departure is the most surprising of them all by a long, long way. Craig Short was unjustly sacked in October 2010 after only 13 league games, but even then all could see the axe falling. It was no surprise at all when Paul Ince was sacked after a disastrous six-month reign at Meadow Lane last April.

Allen's exit was entirely, entirely unexpected, however, by everyone, including those most close to him for so many reasons, the most obvious being the Magpies are in 11th place in League One, eight points adrift of the play-offs. They were 21st when he replaced Ince and on the brink of relegation into League Two.

Quite simply, Allen had overseen a remarkable transformation of the club's fortunes in only ten months and the future promised so much. It begs the question: What more does the board expect?

Allen took charge of the Magpies on April 11, 2011, only 24 hours before a league game at Yeovil Town and with only seven games of last season left to save the club from relegation because, make no mistake, they were going down under Ince.

Unforgettably, he held his first training session in a car-park at a service station on the M5 on their way to Huish Park. Notts lost 2-1 against Yeovil, but Allen, somehow, led them to two vital wins, against Tranmere Rovers and Swindon Town, that ensured their survival.

It was then he began rebuilding and he made some superb signings last summer. Jeff Hughes, the Northern Ireland international, is unarguably the best of them all and he is the Magpies' leading scorer this season with 14 goals. He did not cost a penny. Allen signed Gavin Mahon at the end of August and he has since become a key figure in midfield. He too, was free. Alan Sheehan and Julian Kelly have also established themselves in the Notts defence. Free. Free.

Allen instilled an attractive brand of attacking football too and led Notts as high as third place in League One this season. That feat was achieved in mid-October after eight wins in their opening 13 games of the campaign.

They also so nearly knocked Nottingham Forest out of the Carling Cup. They should have done, in truth, but lost a penalty shoot-out in the first round at the City Ground on August 9, following a 3-3 draw after extra-time.

The Magpies were unable to maintain such fine form, however, and went on to win only once in their next 12 league games to slip into the bottom half of the table. There was never any indication Allen was under pressure, however, and they ended that terrible run with draws against MK Dons and Preston North End at Meadow Lane, where they have been excellent this season, and wins against Walsall and Exeter City, before losing at Hartlepool United, Allen's last game.

He was sacked at Victoria Park as his players waited for him to board the team bus back to Meadow Lane, which does not seem an appropriate ending. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Allen's journey with Notts then began in the south-west and ended in the north-east via Turin, of course, because he was in charge when the Magpies played Juventus in a special friendly last September and held the Italian giants to a 1-1 draw. Capello was present that night too, ironically. It was not the only unforgettable moment in Allen's reign, but rather one of many.