Maybe it was the sound of an entire stadium singing ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’. Perhaps the banner telling him to ‘get out of our club’.
Possibly the sight of a supporter hopping over the advertising boards and sprinting towards him, steward in tow trying to catch him. Or maybe it was the text message from Everton owner Farhad Moshiri telling him they should talk. At some stage on Saturday, Rafa Benitez realised the jig was up.
It had gotten too noisy and too ugly. As Benitez conducted his post-match media duties at Carrow Road, the final words of his press conference were: ‘I just try to do my job.