Cristiano Ronaldo has spent the summer finding out how having an iconic status guarantees nothing in the fickle and complicated world of football - now he is back at Manchester United for the next stage of the transfer saga.
He finally arrived back at United's Carrington training base on Tuesday at 11.00am - 45 minutes after Erik ten Hag checked in for work at 10:45 and, tellingly, just five minutes ahead of former boss Sir Alex Ferguson who arrived at 11:05 and could be the key man in how things play out.
When he returned to Portugal at the end of last season, Ronaldo would have been convinced a new club would be able to rescue him from his United nightmare.
Barring a World Cup, this is a man who has won it all in the game. But with less than two weeks to go before the start of the new season, Ronaldo finds himself in limbo and backed into a corner as hopes of engineering an escape route from Old Trafford fade fast.
Bayern Munich, Napoli, Chelsea and even Atletico Madrid, the bitter rivals of Ronaldo's former club Real Madrid, have all either shown interest or been mooted as destinations for Ronaldo. All four of them can offer Ronaldo Champions League football, which is what he still craves at the age of 37 knowing time is not on his side. But what this quartet cannot offer him, however, are wages close to the £500,000-a-week he is earning at United.
No club in their right mind would hand someone his age £2m-a-month in the current climate, which has seen the pandemic rip through the finances of some of the biggest outfits in the business. So Ronaldo has been forced to do what he never imagined, which is head back to Manchester to speak to Ten Hag and United CEO Richard Arnold to see if a compromise can be reached.
And in a saga which has overshadowed United's pre-season preparations, it feels like neither side holds the aces. Ronaldo is contracted to United for a further 12 months, albeit it on reduced terms due to the team's failure to get into the Champions League. He could choose the waiting game, dig his heels in, accept lesser terms and hope someone decides to bite the bullet and sign him before the transfer deadline on September 1, even if this means a loan move.
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In the meantime, Ten Hag knows the longer the impasse goes on the more of a distraction it becomes. The Dutchman is known for having strong convictions, but will feel like he's trapped in a living nightmare when it comes to Ronaldo.
Does he keep an unhappy player who isn't up to speed with his training methods and style of play, or send a clear message to Ronaldo that life goes on without him and sign a new striker instead?
But which top class forward would want to join a club in the Europa League, and would he agree to go to Manchester while Ronaldo is still there?
Whatever happens, it's impossible to see a winner from whatever scenario transpires, because the chances are, there just won't be one.
