A football locker room in the process of being vacated can be a sad and lonely place.

What for the past six months has been a gathering place, a boys club, a place to laugh, and in the case of this version of the San Francisco 49ers, a place to cry — is closing shop for a while. For months it’s been part office, part gymnasium, and part hospital. And, on this day it’s none of those things — it’s a ghost town.

The just concluded season for these San Francisco 49ers had an aura of doom dating back to springtime mini-camps. It seems that as wise and cutting edge as sports management is these days, we all close our eyes to the undeniable fact that long holdouts almost inevitably end both in big pay days, and big problems. The 49ers had plenty of both.

It began with Brandon Aiyuk. And, what seemed like it was pretty well a done deal, suddenly dragged on through the entire preseason. When the contract was finally ready to sign, Aiyuk wasn’t ready to play.

And then it got worse.

The Trent Williams hold out was next.

Nobody had any doubts about Williams’ worth, nor his ability to play. But, the holdout was Topic A.

And then it got even more worse.

Neither preseason holdout got his game legs back before suffering what turned out to be a season ending injury. Brandon Aiyuk had an ACL tear and Trent Williams, an ankle that just couldn’t hold up his massive body.

The number one draft choice, Ricky Piersall became an instant locker room favorite. Then he innocently got shot in downtown San Francisco. His recovery was remarkable, but it left a hangover of “what’s going on here?”

Two veteran 49ers tragically lost a young child. You just don’t bounce back from that sort of thing in the short space of a football season. It was no longer a battle to get to the Super Bowl — it was a battle to get to the next day.

What’s left in the tatters of this season is that the team has a few months to try and forget. What began as a Super Bowl champion in waiting came apart gradually but steadily over the course of five months.

Preseason mini-camps are for ownership to see if their pre-draft eyes deceived them, or if there might have been a spark of some sort that just now showed up and bodes well.

When the veterans arrive it’s a melding of the old and the new. Is it cohesive? Are there petty jealousies? Can 52 macho athletes all pull on the same rope. Sometimes yes, and other times it just doesn’t happen.

And then there’s the lull before things really count.

There is virtually nothing to be learned by the naked eye in a pre-season football game. The starters are, generally, only sideline observers and we’re all left to see how a free agent right tackle from Bethune-Cookman stacks up against a 7th round pick from South Dakota State.

Fascinating. But, move along — there’s nothing to see here.

And frankly, after the first game of the season, there wasn’t much to see for the next 16 weeks either.

This wasn’t only the antithesis of a storybook year, it was a downright soap opera. In fact, it was General Hospital.

There were so many injuries on this year’s 49er roster that they were asking the Gatorade guys if they’d ever carried a football before.

Even those who did play should have been carrying a drum and a fife. When Kyle Shanahan talked into his headset he was calling 911.

There were guys on the practice squad who’d never practiced.

When they introduced the starting lineup it went something like, “John, I’d like you to meet Malik.”

There were no game balls handed out by the coaching staff this year — they had to be purchased by anyone who thought he’d had a good game.

When the team watched game film during this season, they should have also offered previews of the coming week.

Brock Purdy had so many different running backs behind him, he’d call the play and then explain, “you get the ball and follow that guy.”

The punter and the kicker, whose sole job is to touch the ball only with their foot, both missed time on the disabled list because they actually tried to tackle somebody. There were also guys on the team whose job it was to tackle somebody who never got the memo.

I never thought I’d see a prop bet that says, “Who’ll give up more fourth quarter points? The Warriors or the 49ers?”

What would Trey Lance have done?

For that matter, what would Solomon Thomas have done?

Would you consider trading three number one picks for Greenland?

So, what’s on the ol’ drawing board?

Let’s start with Brock Purdy. Sign him. Soon. He didn’t crumble this year so much as the people assigned to keep him upright did.

Purdy is still a top 10 quarterback. Yes, he holds the ball a tick too long sometimes. If that’s his biggest fault — I’ll take it. Better protection and that “tick” becomes moot.

Bill Walsh used to say, “I want to get rid of someone one year too soon rather than one year too late.” Do you suppose John Lynch might be listening to his former college coach? Moreover, are you listening Deebo Samuel?

Is the 49ers defensive personnel more suited to a 3-4 defense rather than the wide-9 they’ve been using? I’m just askin’.

Okay. I’m through with my diatribe on fixing the 49ers. I just want to watch something that doesn’t need fixing and just buzzes along without a care in the world.

I’ll just turn on the Warriors game.