John McEnroe spoke thus - and he knew more about Brad Gilbert than most: “Eeyore had nothing on Brad; he had a black cloud over his head from the moment he walked out there and never seemed satisfied until he got you feeling pretty gloomy, too. It almost seemed to be his game plan. He’d look like he was going to commit hara-kiri in the warm-up. Then he did a running commentary while he played, berating himself on every single point [as if people cared] and justifying every mistake he made.”

It would seem that Gilbert was the perfect man to try to encourage from Andy Murray – one of the young masters of the dark arts of how to succeed at becoming a tennis great – the full range of what was required to reach the summit of the sport. Murray is also a berater, of himself, of those around him and, increasingly, of the coach he said would make him the best he could be. Gilbert’s all-black garb seemed entirely appropriate.

Whenever you saw the peak-capped American in recent televised close-ups, the enduring image was of him shaking his head as the British No 1 delivered yet another withering look or a few choice words. Gilbert said he did not mind it, that he was a sponge and that if it meant Murray achieving, then who was he to argue.

But the indications that the pair have parted company after a brief period together leaves the British game at a worrying standpoint. British tennis without Murray firing on all cylinders is not worth much. Perhaps he will turn to Louis Cayer, the Canadian brought in to help to shepherd Andy’s elder brother, Jamie, through his doubles career, to see him over the apparent loss of Gilbert. It was after a recent three-day training session with Cayer that Andy said he had never spent a better time on the practice court.

The arrival of Leon Smith – a fellow Scot, erstwhile junior coach and at present head of boys’ under16 coaching at the LTA – at the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid recently indicated that Murray wanted more people around him with whom he felt truly comfortable. Smith may be inclined to help out his friend on a semi-permanent basis.

Would Murray’s next choice be high profile or low? One is reminded of the words of Mark Petchey, the coach he took on a couple of summers ago when he was making that oft-painful transition between successful junior player and wannabe tour success, and who willingly stepped aside when the player wanted to better himself. He said: “You’re right when you say that there will be people who will say, ‘OK, he [Petchey] reached 80 in the world. Does he have enough to tell Andy what to do when he’s out on the Arthur Ashe Stadium Court in the semi-finals of a grand-slam?’

“Ultimately, I’m not going to be afraid to fail with Andy. It’s a business at the end of the day and Andy’s got to make business decisions. If I end up in six months, 12 months, not being the right guy, it’s not going to be personal. I’m certainly not going to stand in his way if he turns round and says, ‘Petch, look, there’s this other guy I want to go to.’ That’s fine.”

Remember that McEnroe took a six-month break from the game from late 1985, when Gilbert beat him in New York in the old Nabisco Masters, having said during the match: “Gilbert, you don’t deserve to be on the same court with me. You are the f***ing worst!” That is not how it is seen now.

“Brad’s style is really pretty simple,” Andy Roddick said when the pair were at the height of their success together, which culminated in the 2003 US Open triumph. “We go to dinner. We have a lot of fun. We talk some strategy about players’ weaknesses and how to take advantage of them.”

Where does this portentous decision leave the LTA? It wanted Gilbert, it paid big bucks for him because it was prepared to mint for Murray and now, with his apparent departure, it has to try to persuade those who have seen their contributions cut that it was the right thing to do for British tennis.