Romelu Lukaku arrived for training at Everton on Wednesday the day after telling the club that he was not going to sign a new contract at Goodison Park.
It had seemed a formality that Lukaku would become the first player in the club's history to sign a deal worth more than £100,000 a week, with negotiations going on since last summer.
Everton were prepared to pay the 23-year-old a wage in the region of £130,000 per week, which would have dramatically altered their pay structure. But after training at the club's Finch Farm base, Lukaku dropped the bombshell on Tuesday afternoon.