And so Jose Mourinho's tenure at Tottenham has reached its inevitable conclusion.
The Portuguese manager has left his post at the 'The Super League' club, with Friday night's draw at Everton apparently the last straw in what has been a largely disappointing spell in North London.
The timing of this decision is arguably strange. Spurs are set to play in a League Cup final this weekend, while it isn't as if their form has been noticeably worse in recent weeks. Their top four hopes are also still in tact even if they are hanging by the thinnest of threads.
While it may have felt like this day was coming since the day Mourinho walked in the door at Spurs, it is somewhat easy to forget that there was plenty of goodwill directed his way over the last 18 months.
The club's supporters largely welcome his appointment despite the obvious potential pitfalls, with a manager possessing a track record of trophy success a welcome addition to a club that have been starved in that department for a number of decades.
Mourinho's previously granite image had also been softened by Spurs' Amazon documentary series, something that had essentially become a PR exercise for 'The Special One'.
Even the media, often so critical of Mourinho, were on side for the early portion of this season.
Spurs were playing putrid football in the majority of games, but they had the uncanny knack of grinding out results regardless. It was said their manager had finally cracked the modern reincarnation of 'Mourinho ball', something that had let him down in recent years.
Their low energy, counter-attacking style was thought to have suited this unorthodox season, one where the condensed schedule would result in more injuries and fatigue for the high tempo sides at the top of the division.
Instead, their lack of creativity quickly caught up with them. Results deteriorated quickly, with the absence of exciting football leaving little else to enthuse supporters once the points stopped coming in.
From here, Mourinho began to follow a familiar script.
The players, officials, and opposition managers were the ones to blame and never Mourinho himself. His blaming of the players for the team's habit of capitulating in the second half of games was a watershed moment, one that likely cost him plenty of respect in the dressing room.
In all, we were in the early stages of a trademark Mourinho meltdown.
By sacking him now, Spurs are hoping to avoid replicating the completely toxic atmosphere that has become the defining part of his recent spells at Chelsea and Manchester United.
Miguel Delaney of The Independent is reporting that Mourinho had all but lost the dressing room in recent times, but cutting the chord now should be enough to stop the rot setting in for the long-term.
Am told Spurs came to decision Friday evening, having been conscious of increasing fan and player unrest.
Mourinho had basically lost almost the entire squad, bar a few who were keeping quiet.— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) April 19, 2021
The notoriously frugal Daniel Levy would not have taken this decision lightly, with the club now looking at forking out a severance package of around £15million in the midst of a global pandemic.
The cup final also would have been a chance for Mourinho to regain some credit, although we would hazard a guess that the 58-year making a victory in England's second cup competition all about him was not an appealing prospect for many at Spurs.
In all, they were simply getting ahead of the game by getting rid of Mourinho now before real long-term damage had been done.
That isn't to say whoever replaces him won't have a major task in retooling this squad, regardless of 'The Super League'...
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