Paolo di Canio refused to sink the boot into Sunderland after their 8-0 humiliation at Southampton.
The Italian took in the game on Sky Sports and was keen not the turn on his successor, Gus Poyet.
"I don't know it's difficult but I don't want to talk about Poyet because I don't know his own philosophy.
"It's happened to me in the past and you have a large responsibility.
"You have to self-punish, in the past I have suggested we fine ourselves not to punish the players.
"The first person to blame is the coach.
"Just to save your own dignity you have to pay something in my opinion, it is not acceptable to just say we will work harder because that should be normal.
"I don't necessarily mean financially pay but just in some way, maybe stop some things or make some new rules to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"But in my opinion if not only for your conscience before you punish the players you have to punish yourself. I don't want to sound like I'm forcing Poyet or anything, I'm not talking about Sunderland I am talking about in general.
"If it happened to me that's how I would react, even when I was manager of Swindon if I played against a Premier League team 8-0 - I would not accept it is not possible in my opinion."
For the big stories and the banter follow us on Twitter: @tribalfootball