It would hardly be melodramatic to suggest at half-time during Saturday's Manchester derby, a significant number of those in the away dressing room with heads bowed were effectively on the precipice in terms of their Manchester United careers.
The significant overhaul Jose Mourinho has intimated is coming will no doubt still happen over the summer, but the gallows being readied at Carrington may perhaps no longer require quite so many nooses. Though United's victory will delay rather than derail Manchester City's title procession, it could have accelerating properties in terms of their own cycle of transition.
Inside the Etihad the smoke bombs going off intermittently were blue, the familiar refrain of Blue Moon was bellowed throughout, and the language heard from the away end was definitely blue, but inside United's dressing room at the break the mood was black.