Confirmation that David de Gea's time at Manchester United has come to an end is the perfect example of how it's possible to come to the right decision in the wrong way.
After 12 years and 545 games, De Gea deserved a better farewell than a few words from Erik ten Hag and John Murtough on the club's website. He deserved a better chance to say goodbye than an Instagram post to United supporters.
Only six players have made more appearances for United than De Gea and all of them have a better palmares. Somehow De Gea's 12 years of service returned just one Premier League title. Few players have devoted as much to this club and been rewarded with so little.
It was De Gea's misfortune to spend most of his career at one of the world's most storied football clubs at a time when they were focusing on horror stories. In those dozen years, De Gea experienced United finishing in every position from first to seventh in the Premier League. They finished sixth as often as they finished second in his time at Old Trafford.
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But still he stuck around. Perhaps a faulty fax machine is the only reason he got beyond 2016, but get beyond it he did. That move to Real Madrid collapsed and De Gea played another 321 games for a team that was often a laughing stock.
Now the journey is done, let's not pretend that the Spaniard was faultless in this era. There is a reason he is leaving on a free transfer, but for all that mistakes crept into his game, for all the doubts that grew in his final three to four years, he was almost always more reliable than those in front of him.
He became more of a leader as the years progressed as well. He went from a reluctant talker to someone willing to front up. In the nightmare that was 2021/22, it was De Gea who spoke to the TV cameras as regularly as any of his teammates. His solemn interviews after disastrous defeats became a regular occurrence, but that shouldn't have diluted their impact.
His exasperation at the way standards had fallen since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure were clearly visible in his body language and his words. His departure also signals the end of an area, for the first time in three decades United don't have someone who has won a title with them in their squad. De Gea was the last playing link to the Ferguson era.
He only briefly enjoyed that era of dominance, however. Too many of his seasons at United were disastrous. De Gea's four player of the year awards often came about because he was getting plenty of practice. He doesn't leave as a goalkeeper with a highlights reel of vital moments in successful seasons, but as someone who stopped things from being even worse.
For that alone, he deserved a little more respect from the club. His farewell social media posts on Saturday focused on the journey, but the fact his two previous posts on Twitter were emojis that hinted at an exasperation at the way things were being handled. It's been a messy divorce.
It's not like any of this should have come as a surprise to United. Last season was two games old when his incompatibility with Ten Hag's demands became clear. His mistakes at Brentford were glaring, but to his immense credit he asked to speak to the written reporters from Manchester who had made the trip in the mixed zone after the game. He could always put his hands up - no pun intended - when things had gone wrong.
They were going wrong too often, however. Ten Hag compromised and in the next game, De Gea went long almost every time he had the ball. That wasn't sustainable either, so a middle ground was found. But an erratic performance with his feet at home to Real Betis and then more blunders at Sevilla set alarm bells ringing.
In the background, contract talks were ongoing. You could say that with the benefit of hindsight, the £375,000-a-week deal he signed in 2019 was a mistake by United, but it didn't need hindsight to be the holder of such wisdom. He was coming off the back of a poor season then and didn't deserve to become the best-paid goalkeeper in the world.
Throughout the season the noises from United and De Gea were positive. The 32-year-old made it sound inevitable that a deal would be agreed every time he spoke to the media.
But the longer it went on, the more doubts grew. He ended the season poorly and Ten Hag's feet were getting colder by the week. The FA Cup final might have been the final straw, but no competent football club should be making such a decision on the basis of 90 minutes.
It was clear midway through the season that this was an uneasy marriage. United's attempts to keep De Gea were borne out of an expectation that they wouldn't have enough money to replace him this summer. Someone had to take control of the situation, however.
In the end, the right decision has been reached. But De Gea has been kept hanging on for weeks while United worked on signing Andre Onana as a replacement. It's a poor way to treat any player, never mind someone of De Gea's standing at Old Trafford.
In his tribute on Saturday, Ten Hag said: "He will always be remembered as one of the very best goalkeepers in the history of the club."
That is true, but United have failed to treat him like someone of that stature. "Manchester will always be in my heart," De Gea said in his farewell message. His love for the club was never in doubt and he should have had the chance to say a proper goodbye. United will be better with Onana in goal next season, but they must learn lessons from this.
