As the transfer deadline passed and Friday night became Saturday morning, Jadon Sancho's move from Manchester United to Chelsea edged towards completion.
Sancho slipped quietly away after a desperately disappointing three-year stay, and that felt like a fitting way to end it.
The deal sheet was submitted by the 11pm deadline, giving United and Chelsea another two hours to thrash out the fine details. Chelsea have taken the 24-year-old on loan for the rest of the season, with an obligation to sign him permanently in a year's time for between £20-£25million, based on where they finish in the league.
There is no loan fee but Chelsea will pay the bulk of Sancho's £250,000-a-week wages this season. It means that Sancho's last kick of a ball for United was a penalty saved by Ederson in the Community Shield penalty shoot-out defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.
Tuesday marks the anniversary of Sancho's spectacular fallout with Erik ten Hag, after the United boss explained that the winger's absence from the squad at Arsenal was due to the fact he had not trained well.
Jadon Sancho will hope for a fresh start at Chelsea after joining on loan for the season
Sancho returned from the cold at Manchester United in an uneasy truce with Erik ten Hag
The player responded with a scathing social media post effectively branding his manager a liar and claiming to be 'a scapegoat'.
Ten Hag demanded an apology that wasn't forthcoming and so banished Sancho to train on his own at the academy facilities at Carrington.
Despite appeals from his teammates and United's former football director, John Murtough, Sancho stuck to his guns and was sent back to Dortmund on loan in January, where he rediscovered some of his best form to help the Bundesliga club reach the Champions League final.
When he returned to pre-season training at United in July following clear-the-air talks with Ten Hag, it always felt like an uneasy truce, encouraged by the new Old Trafford hierarchy to get Sancho fit and put him in the shop window.
References to United were conspicuously absent from the player's social media profiles, which remained dominated by the yellow and black of Dortmund.
As late as Friday lunchtime, Ten Hag was still claiming that Sancho could have a place in his plans this season if the transfer window closed without a move. 'He is a player in our squad and we are happy with him,' said the Dutchman.
Ten Hag must have known Sancho was already halfway out of the door, with all sides having long acknowledged that a parting of the ways was in everyone's best interests.
The forward's final touch for United was the penalty saved by Ederson in the Community Shield
Chelsea hold an obligation to sign him permanently in a year's time for between £20m-£25m
Sancho's absence from matchday squads for the opening Premier League games against Fulham and Brighton said everything about where he sat in the pecking order.
Juventus had led the way for Sancho's signature all summer, and United would have preferred to sell him to the Italians, but Chelsea got their man after failing to engineer a swap deal for Raheem Sterling.
Sancho's time at United is up after 83 appearances, 12 goals and six assists across three years that began with a £73m move from Dortmund, making him the second most expensive English player ever at the time.
Sancho was said to be underwhelmed by what he found at United, and issues resurfaced over his discipline and time-keeping.
He last played for his country nearly three years ago. He may hope that a fresh start will bring out the best in him again.