That is almost certain to finish with the guillotine coming down on Allardyce's reign on Monday but, in fairness to him, is it any wonder his players have lost their focus when they have known for months, like everyone else, that he was a dead man walking?
And then, as you stand where the guillotine once stood, alongside the last vespasienne in Paris, you'll sense the tangy whiff of what was for so long the stuff of Parisian nightmares.
The last execution – by guillotine – actually took place here in 1972.
As we began the tour properly in the Cour d'Honneur, the former entrance to the prison, I asked where the executions had taken place and where the guillotine had been used.
"Until 1939 the guillotine was used just outside but after that all the executions took place here so that the whole prison knew about them".
(In the Lords, ministers cannot impose a guillotine on debates).
In Mr Arafat's eyes, that was enough to tar Mr Yusuf as a conspirator.With the road map in shreds and with Israel's decision "in principle" to "remove" Mr Arafat hovering like a guillotine over him, the old man's recalcitrance may seem pointless.
He is now accused of "complicity in false accusation, complicity in the use of forgeries, receipt of stolen goods, and breach of trust".Flanked by his entire family, Mr de Villepin declared this week, before entering the court (coincidentally the same one from which Marie-Antoinette was sent to the guillotine in 1793), that he would emerge "free and cleared" at the end of the trial.
Under a guillotine clause, such a breach would annul six other economic agreements struck at the time.
Tocqueville's father, jailed with them, escaped only because the guillotine caught up with Robespierre first.The son respected many of his family's attitudes but flouted others.
It is over 200 years since many of their French counterparts were escorted to the guillotine.
