"No one wants to be sacked, but you have to take it. You have to feel the pain and wherever I go next, someone's going to get a better version of Ryan Lowe."
In truth, the fact that it took Ryan Lowe until his fourth managerial role to get the chop is pretty astonishing in modern-day football.
He had enjoyed League Two promotion with Bury and Plymouth Argyle, before seasons at Preston where he feels they punched well above their weight in the Championship.
Wigan was difficult.
"It was a tough gig," Lowe told the Sky Sports Essential EFL podcast. "The first year, in 2024/25, we wanted to try and consolidate and stay in the division. We got 13 points from the first 11 or 12 games, but the remit was to stay in the division. We'd done that comfortably.
"The following year, we needed to try and kick on and we felt that we'd have a budget to compete. But the budgets were benchmarked from two years ago and stuff, so it was really difficult.
"We missed out on a lot of players because we couldn't compete with certain clubs. They were bigger and had better players than we were able to get.
"We had a good start to the season, really. We were doing OK, and then we lost Ryan Trevitt, who was a big, influential player for us. We built the team around him because he was very creative and everything.
"We had a few injuries and a few KPIs went against us, but that's not making excuses. There was a lot of stuff that I could have done better with and I know that, but so could a lot of other people who were there with me.
"It was tough. When you're being sacked, that was my first sacking and hopefully it's my last. But I understood it. The results weren't great. The performances were okay, the data was okay. We were still creating and whatnot, but we weren't clinical enough in front of goal."
Before Wigan, Lowe was at Preston. Punching above their weight in the Championship, he led them to two top-half finishes in his full seasons in charge.
He is full of belief that the relative struggles of the club since have shown what an impressive job he did there. His successor, Paul Heckingbottom, was sacked last month.
"The year I left, Hecky survived the last day of the season to stay in the Championship. Last season he finished 14th," Lowe continued. "He's a fantastic football manager and he ends up losing his job.
"Other people will question the style of play and what type of football you're playing. But what I chose and what I learned in the Championship, again from managers who we'd come up against, was how to adapt.
"I know deep down I did a good job there. That doesn't matter to anyone else, just for me and my own personal belief that I know I can do that. I'm a good manager in terms of overachieving on budgets.
"I don't think you can just go to places and say, 'I can go toe to toe with all Norwich's footballers.' We went to Norwich one year and played five at the back, 5-4-1, and nearly won. We drew 0-0, but it was a good point away from home."
One thing he does rue, however, is leaving Preston the way he did. Lowe knows he needed to go, but to do it after just one game of the 2024/25 season wasn't the right time.
"I do regret leaving after one game," he admitted. "But what I had to do was protect myself and my family at that time.
"Pre-season, I did contemplate it and I had a good chat with [chairman] Peter Ridsdale. There was a statement that went out at the end of that season before pre-season saying that it wasn't good enough for where we finished and the results weren't great.
"We played Sheffield United [on opening day] and lost 2-0. The two goals we conceded were very sloppy. I couldn't sleep at all that night and I was thinking, can I take it any further? Can I do justice for the club? They're paying me a lot of money to do this job and am I really giving the fans what they want? Am I really giving the footballers what they want?
"We sat down and had a gentleman's agreement. They didn't actually want me to leave, but I just felt at that time I wasn't advised very well on that side of it, if I'm being honest.
"My gut instinct was saying, just do it, do it, do it. I should have really waited. I should have given it the next few games. If I had been sacked, I would have been sacked. It wouldn't have really mattered anyway.
"I just felt that I'd taken it as far as I could take it. I didn't think we could get to the next level with the budgets, the squad and everything around it.
"Sadly, it's been proved right by where they've finished over the past few seasons. The only regret was doing it one game in."
What next, then, for Lowe?
He is keen on a return to football, and wants a project rather than a firefighting job. Something he has turned down in the past.
Even at Wigan, he was given a three-and-a-half year deal, before being sacked after less than 12 months.
"Wherever I go next, they will be getting the best version of Ryan Lowe because I'm disappointed with what happened," he said. "You don't want to be a firefighter, but I know you do sometimes have to go in somewhere and keep a side in the division.
"What I don't want to do is go into a club for 10 or 15 games with no longevity, just to get a few wins and then earn your contract. My CV speaks for itself.
"I'm 380 games in now as a manager, a lot of them in the Championship. I'm really keen to get back to a football club with a good ownership group and a good sporting director, and we're all on the same page."