Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will confirm on Friday that he is ending a 25-year association with his boyhood club.
The midfielder will announce he is leaving at the end of the season after deciding not to renew his contract, which runs out in July.
The ex-England skipper has not yet decided where his next destination will be but he wanted to remove any ambiguity over his future between now and the end of this summer.
It will be an amicable separation, despite the deep disappointment at Anfield that the 34-year-old has decided not to extend his Kop career.
It will be a devastating loss to manager Brendan Rodgers, but Liverpool supporters will also be reeling from the imminent departure of such an inspirational captain.
Gerrard has won every major honour at the club except the one he craved most - the Premier League title - and he always delivered on the biggest stage for his club.
He scored in the Uefa Cup Final, FA Cup Final, League Cup Final and, most famously, the Champions League Final, lifting the trophy in Istanbul. His goal against Olympiakos, to keep Liverpool in the tournament, in 2005 was probably his greatest, but he also virtually single-handedly ensured the side qualified for the tournament during the 2003-04 season.
The idea of seeing him in any other jersey is inconceivable, but on this occasion a fresh challenge abroad will tempt him. He will not play for another English team.
It will be an emotional day at Anfield when he says goodbye. Few believed Gerrard would end his career anywhere other than his boyhood team but there was much for him to consider.
He knew his games were being increasingly tailored, and was unsure how often he would feature in seasons ahead. It could be that the comprehensive nature of Liverpool’s victory over Swansea on Monday - when they won 4-1 with Gerrard on the bench for 90 minutes - offered him a glimpse of a Liverpool future he was not comfortable with. He will feel the timing is right.
The adjustment from being the focal point of the midfield to a support act was too much for someone who has driven his club forward for so many years, and he no longer needed the aggravation of being a scapegoat whenever the team underperformed.
Although there will be respect for the player’s wishes from the Anfield hierarchy, there may also be a sense of regret it reached this point given how public Rodgers was in declaring a desire to retain Gerrard’s services.
It was last season when Rodgers said he expected a contract proposal to be made, but Liverpool made no contract offer until November - a few days after the captain went public with the revelation negotiations had not even started. The delay was not considered an issue for the club, but certainly played on the captain’s mind.
In retrospect, this must be considered a mistake by the Liverpool board as - unintentionally or not - it planted doubts in Gerrard’s mind about how much the club genuinely wanted to keep him. An earlier offer may not have altered his thinking, but the wait certainly alerted him to the possibility he may have to move on.
Gerrard started contemplating the unthinkable then, and allied to the Merseyside club’s return to a period of transition having gone so close to the title in 2014, he knew his dream of winning the Premier League on Merseyside was gone.
A debate will rage about whether Gerrard is the greatest of all Liverpool players - his former team-mate Jamie Carragher believes he is due to the context of his achievements in largely average Liverpool teams - but certainly no player has sacrificed more for the club.
Gerrard rejected a high-profile move to Chelsea in 2003, 2004 and, most famously, in 2005. He also turned down offers from Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich when they were all European Champions. In some of those cases, Liverpool were not even competing in Europe, or found themselves in the Europa League, and were certainly not in a position to fight for the top honours.
His announcement on Friday is further example of the player putting the needs of the club first as he felt unwanted speculation could be a distraction to manager Rodgers, who would otherwise be forced to fend off persistent questions on Gerrard’s future while competing for a top-four place.
Whether those sacrifices have been fully appreciated - even by all his own fans - is another matter, but history will record the captain as one of the club’s most legendary figures, sitting alongside Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness as the best there have been, and comfortably the most talented home-grown player.
The 34-year-old is determined to play on elsewhere and he will be coveted by elite clubs.
There is interest from a host of teams both in Europe and in Major League Soccer in the United States. Despite the smart money being on a move to the USA - New York Red Bulls will lead the chase via former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier - he will consider his various options between now and the summer.
A final stint at the Champions League, a competition he has missed for too much of his career in order to help Liverpool’s numerous rebuilding projects under successive managers, will certainly appeal.
Rodgers now faces the arduous task of finding a replacement. In three seasons, the Liverpool manager has seen Carragher retire, lost Luis Suarez to Barcelona and must now prepare for life without Gerrard.
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Happy New Year Adam, best hangover cures that work for me are 2 Big Macs or a breakfast roll (2 rashers, 2 sausages, white pudding, 2 hash browns with Chef brown sauce) both accompanied by a pint of milk. As for LVG's first visit to Stoke I can see MUFC having a frustrating afternoon . 