Big Sam pumped his fist fiercely above his head, those Marbella lights spinning dizzily above him, Rihanna blaring out over the soundsystem.
'We found love in a hopeless place,' she sang. 'We found love in a hopeless place'.
It was a fitting epitaph to this particular managerial career.
Sam Allardyce, who will quit Crystal Palace this summer and step back from football after a half-century's service, made a habit of finding love in hopeless places - from Limerick's Market Fields to the Selhurst Park office he is preparing to vacate.