Dave Collins has been sacked by UK Athletics (UKA) as its performance director and the question now is whether Charles van Commenee will agree to take on a role that can be viewed as both a golden opportunity and a poisoned chalice.

Collins gained belated support as UKA prepared to announce that it would not be renewing his four-year contract, with Christine Ohuruogu, Britain's solitary gold medal-winner in track and field at the Beijing Olympics, saying that he had done “a brilliant job”. Ohuruogu, running yesterday for the first time since adding the Olympic title to her World Championship crown, said: “I haven't heard the criticism or negative things, but he's more than capable of doing what he needs to.”

Collins, however, has already been told his fate and departs amid mixed feelings. Some believe that he has been let down by his athletes and paymasters, while others point to a string of issues - not attending the Commonwealth Games, marking athletes out of ten, the lack of an athletics background.

UKA had prepared to replace him before the Olympics and Van Commenee has already been approached. The chef de mission of the Holland team in Beijing, he is now concentrating on the Paralympic Games, but he was backed to make a seismic impact by one woman who knows just how hard he can be. Kelly Sotherton, who worked with the Dutchman during his days as UKA's multi-events technical director, said: “He is a great coach, he has coached world and Olympic champions, he is very tough and he is not short of words.”

While suggesting that “nobody could say results [in Beijing] were poor”, Sotherton knows Van Commenee would have wanted more. Famously, he branded her “a wimp” when she took the bronze medal and not the silver in the heptathlon in Athens, and Sotherton said: “It is a shame he did not come here four years ago. Some people will have a rude awakening. There are only a few of us who know what he is like. He knows how to get results. He works hard and does not wait for things to happen.”

Having finished a disappointing fourth in Beijing, Sotherton refused to join the rush to blame Collins. “DC has done a great job to bring us to where we are,” she said. “But we need something else. I always hoped Charles would come back one day.”

Ohuruogu, meanwhile, took issue with the view that the athletics team had underperformed in Beijing. “It's not bad, we were a medal short on what was predicted,” she said. “I don't think my performance papers over cracks. I think there were good performances, a lot of PBs and people getting into finals of tough events.”

Even Collins's critics gave warning that nobody should expect miracles from his successor. Brendan Foster, the 10,000 metres bronze medal-winner at Montreal Games in 1976, while lamenting the lack of British distance runners, said: “It [Van Commenee's possible appointment] is one element to a potential solution. But this is not the panacea.”

Colin Jackson, who won the silver medal in Seoul, said that Van Commenee may shake some athletes out of their comfort zone. “Charles deals with tough love,” he said. “If he thinks you do not deserve something, you will not get it. It will not be easy for anyone from here on in.”

While opinion largely gathered behind Van Commenee, there was one dissenting voice suggesting an alternative. Steve Ovett, a throwback to the golden age of British athletics, said: “The person you need is already working on 2012 - Seb Coe.”

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