Any decision to remove Marcelo Bielsa from his perch as Leeds United manager is one which required quiet consideration, contemplation and extensive reflection from chairman and majority shareholder Andrea Radrizzani.
The Italian businessman relieved previous manager Paul Heckingbottom from his duties following a disappointing end to the 2017/18 campaign in the Championship, but his current predicament is uncharted territory altogether.
The executive walked a tight-rope; financial consequences could prove severe if Leeds continue on their current run and return to the second tier. However, relieving Bielsa of his post would risk a public relations disaster, particularly as there is no guarantee a new regime will deliver the results Radrizzani desperately needs to retain Leeds' Premier League status.
Any future sale of the club - likely to minority shareholders 49ers Enterprises - will depend enormously on the division in which Leeds compete.
Relegation could seriously jeopardise the prospect of an imminent sale to the holding company of NFL franchise San Francisco 49ers, headed by Leeds United Vice President Paraag Marathe.
In truth, given the set of circumstances, any other manager would have been shown the door at Elland Road sooner, but Bielsa's case is unique.
Twenty goals conceded in the last five matches, winless in six, in charge of a team headed towards the business end of a relegation slugging match would ordinarily be more than enough for a Premier League manager to be given their marching orders.
However, Bielsa has always been more than a manager at Leeds United - he embodies something greater and more significant.
His exit, prolonged as it may be, will be a divorce of emotion, passion and affection.
The Argentine has been afforded the opportunity to model a football club in his image, given the green light to revamp training facilities, implement rarely-seen training methods and countless other measures on multi-million pound footballers.
Ultimately, his experiment has been an unqualified success, despite recent form: Leeds United are once again a Premier League football club, and may be for a third consecutive season next year.
The prospect of such a reality just four years ago was nigh on impossible.
Careful consideration has been taken by the Leeds United Board of Directors due to Bielsa's status amongst the supporters, while the pros and cons of hiring an all-new backroom team pondered as fixtures come thick and fast over the next three months.
Bielsa is seen to be purer than those in the modern game, untouched by the pitfalls of ego, personality and the variant externalities which inadvertently are attributed to the Premier League manager package deal.
He is an adherent of his craft, unquivering in his principles of play, unconventional in his approach to personal relationships within the professional arena.
At the end of his tenure, his stoicism has been his downfall - a situation many deem unjust - unflinching in his dedication to the order of his life's work.
For that, he has been lauded by those inherently plugged into the Leeds United sphere, and at times derided by those unconnected offering passing judgements.
Bielsa has scorned the status quo and it has paid dividends for all those concerned with the club he has spent the greatest time with during his distinguished career.
Results turned and did so in a scathing manner. Unwanted Premier League records, the Elland Road crowd's only reprieve being speculative penalty claims in his final hour; the die was cast long before Leeds' capitulation at the hands of Tottenham.
Above all, though, he instilled belief and hope into a group of football supporters who had stopped believing, or hoping, long ago.
With the 66-year-old on the brink of an Elland Road departure, he has enough credit banked to at least ensure Andrea Radrizzani has taken every possible scenario into consideration.
The visceral emotion Bielsa has re-awoken in a group of supporters famed for malcontent, borne out of ridicule and false dawns, has at least afforded him the most dignified of exits; even if recent results have been anything but exalting.
