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We saw this coming. But the sudden exit, and the power play it revealed, still left us in shock.

RDZ was a manager who was unhappy with his lot. Those first rumblings of discontent after the winter transfer window were clear and obvious. We all knew that BHAFC doesn’t do big signings in January, but Roberto refused to accept that.

Yes, he could’ve used some experienced players to stiffen up an injury-ravaged squad, but he only (?!) got Barco. Tony Bloom is a gambler who doesn’t like to gamble, and the data possibly told him that bringing in expensive signings who have little or no time to feel their way into our system is most likely doomed to fail. He’d already indulged RDZ with his personal targets Dahoud and Fati, and those had bombed.

Why throw away another thirty, forty or fifty million quid to bring in experienced Europa League players and get the same result?

And perhaps it’s a forewarning of another big money sale this summer, one that was too much for Roberto to stomach. Few of us outside the BHAFC boardroom have much appetite for Mitoma to Man City, whatever the net return.

And so the path of Roberto’s downfall was laid.

On that bloody night in Rome did we see that RDZ’s head had gone? At two-nil down it was time for a plan B. We needed to limit the damage, to give ourselves a chance to regroup and fight back in the second leg. But perhaps a frustrated RDZ, subconsciously, pressed the self-destruct button. We kept attacking, kept opening up at the back, because this is his way.

The result was a massive “I told you so” to Bloom. Maybe this dogmatic belief that there is only one way to win a football match is his character flaw. A dose of street-wise nous could’ve helped us scrape past a dangerous opponent, and make the difference between winning a cup and not.

Our form since Rome has been poor. A lacklustre game here, a downright capitulation there, and suddenly we had a half-season points-per-game return that rang the alarm bells. The ambiguous comments from Roberto continued to signal his disaffection. “If I am happy I will stay” is not reassuring, but we all clung to the hope that the true meaning was lost in translation.

RDZ had lost faith in our method. Tony Bloom could tolerate the sniping at our transfer policies, limited ambitions and budget constraints, but he couldn’t tolerate the decline. He had found a manager who had delivered the impossible, and so a run of bad results wasn’t enough for him to pull the trigger. He’d looked Roberto in the eye and seen that both the heart for the fight and the head needed to take this club forward, transfer policies and all, had gone.

He’d have read the data sheets, looked at where the form was heading and decided that, on balance, having RDZ in charge for the first few games of 24/25 wasn’t going to work out. It’s a massive call to make, and the echoes of Hughton’s dismissal are clear. “Thanks for all you’ve done Roberto, but I’ll take it from here.”

Sometimes the brightest stars shine for the shortest time. RDZ’s Brighton were brilliant to watch. We reached heights we daren’t dream of and witnessed an Albion team playing football that was out of this world.

Roberto was our Special One, and his deep bond with the club, city and fans is genuine and eternal. But love isn’t enough, even for the God of Football. It’s time to move on, with the faith that Tony knows best and the hope that this Machiavellian play works out.

Thanks Roberto, it’s been a blast.