Middlesbrough's decision to sack Michael Carrick may surprise some outside Teesside but one thing it can't be described as is a knee-jerk reaction.
More than a month has passed since Boro's 2-0 defeat at Coventry on the final day of the Championship season.
That loss was their 18th of a desperately disappointing season and was followed by the head coach insisting "I'm carrying on" in his BBC Radio Tees Sport post-match interview.
Many Boro fans had come to the conclusion he would be doing just that as the days and weeks ticked by without any sign of white smoke from the club's Rockliffe Park training ground.