It first reared its ugly head towards the end of last season; despite comfortably avoiding relegation the latter performances tailed off alarmingly.
The discontent has festered with increasing intensity until on Sunday it degenerated into acrimonious turmoil. The spectacle of your head coach sharing an animated slanging match with a group of your own supporters with both parties in a venomous rage was not endearing to say the least.
The schism was becoming increasingly inevitable and for now it appears that our executive chairman as he did with Gary O’Neil, will vacillate hoping against credulity that this mess, for which he shoulders considerable responsibility, will miraculously be remedied.
But history has generally been unkind to anyone subject to a confidence motion. I’ve witnessed every managerial departure and every relegation this club has endured since the Second World War and the patterns of decline remain essentially similar.