When the final whistle sounded in the goalless draw that confirmed Tottenham Hotspur's exit at the last-16 stage of the Champions League, every sight and sound screamed the beginning of the end of manager Antonio Conte's 16-month reign.
Spurs fans reacted furiously, the body language reflected a broken team, the empty seats illustrated the brutal reality of the discontent that bubbled beneath the surface throughout what should have been a full-blooded and furious attempt to rescue their European aspirations against AC Milan.
The ramification of this defeat over two legs may be felt far and wide at Spurs, but it was the manner of the performance that will bring justifiable criticism down on Conte's head, his eventual exit now surely a formality, whether it comes at the end of the season or before.