Warren Gatland’s second stint as Wales coach has ended in disaster and the team's worst-ever losing streak in its history.

Fourteen straight defeats, a squad caught between eras, and a fractured dressing room whose confidence has been left in tatters. Gatland's resignation, confirmed just days after a damaging loss to Italy, felt inevitable.

The man who once delivered Grand Slams and World Cup semi-finals had become the face of a team in freefall. The fallout has been brutal. With Wales now heading for another likely wooden spoon in the Six Nations, Gatland's squad have at least the minor bonus of a week off before welcoming reigning champions Ireland on February 22.

But while his old side scramble for a reset, Gatland remains right in the firing line, with plenty of pundits and former players taking aim. Here's what they've had to say...

"You're ruining players"

Former England winger Ugo Monye did not hold back when discussing Gatland’s final days in charge. Speaking before the coach’s departure, Monye criticised his handling of young players, particularly Ben Thomas.

“You've got a young fly-half in Ben Thomas, who's only started once at 10 for his club in the last two years. Warren Gatland sees him as a 10. I'm not quite sure,” Monye said on The Sports Agents podcast. “There is obviously not aligned thinking there.”

The real issue, according to Monye, was Gatland’s lack of faith in his selections. “And then he whips him off after 48 minutes. It was your decision to play him at 10, to back him. You’ve not! You're losing matches and you're ruining players. I don't know how Ben Thomas feels.”

Monye also suggested that the players had stopped responding to Gatland’s leadership.

“It gets to a certain point where the coach’s voice loses all power and you stop listening. That authority, I think, is gone. I reckon the Welsh players have switched off. I've been in those positions, and you're listening to the coach and you're just rolling your eyes.”

"Depressing and hopeless"

Former Wales international Gwyn Jones did not hold back while talking to BBC ScrumV, saying: "There were times in that second half [vs Italy] when I thought that this was the most depressing and hopeless performance that I've seen from Wales.

"We needed to chase the game. We needed something to try and get an impact on the Italian defence. And we had nothing. We had no strategy it seemed. I thought that has got to be the end of Gatland's coaching position. It's untenable. His job is to win Test matches and 14 straight losses with better teams to come. It's going to be 17. How can you justify him sitting in his position?"

Earlier, former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar, who retired from international rugby last year, echoed the sentiment, stopping just short of directly calling for Gatland’s exit but making his stance clear.

"I don’t think anything is off the table at the moment, it can’t be," Biggar said. "It can’t carry on. It is such a shame because there are so many good people there who have had success previously, but clearly what is happening in the week is not working on the pitch."

"Lost the dressing room"

Sam Warburton, the captain Gatland once entrusted for two British and Irish Lions tours, questioned whether the coach had lost the faith of his players. Speaking on BBC Rugby Special, Warburton noted: "There was that review which Warren spoke about before the start of the Six Nations. It feels like that football analogy, ‘lost the dressing room.’ Has that happened? If so, many players want to change, rightly or wrongly, I don’t know.

"The hardest thing a coach has to do is win a team over and if you haven’t got that buy-in, then it’s incredibly difficult to try and move forward as a group. Certainly, in my experience, I think so."

For Warburton, the problem ran deeper than just the coach. He questioned whether Wales even had the depth to compete, saying: "I think if you’re the Italian defence coach, you probably weren’t feeling too threatened by the Welsh team for the majority of the game.

"There’s no criticism of the players, I think they’re trying their hardest as you can see. But I think when you compare our talent pool compared to the other five nations there’s a stark difference to where we have been in the past, for sure."

Evidently, the once-great Gatland era has ended not with a fightback, but with a team that had seemingly lost its way. His legacy in Wales is undeniable, but for many, his second stint will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.