When the news broke that Ronald Koeman was being tempted by Everton, both the Toffee's and Koeman's agent seemed confident that Koeman would be in charge at Goodison Park by Saturday evening.
We know from experience that when a club comes in for your manager and he seems to want to go that the deal is usually done swiftly, indeed Rob Jansen Koeman's agent seemed to hint as much when he declared on Saturday evening that his client had agreed terms with Everton.
Jansen quickly backtracked a day later when he took the unprecedented step of contacting major news outlets to retract his previous claims saying that he had been misquoted.
There was a good reason for that and that was as Saints had not given Koeman permission to talk to Everton, Jansen had broken every rule in the book, that is the hypocrisy of football, the rules are flaunted and that is fine as long as you don't boast about it so everyone can pretend its a very ethical industry.
But on Saturday night it seemed that it was only a matter of time before Koeman would be unveiled as Everton boss, it seemed that the only thing that needed to be agreed was the compensation that Everton would need to pay Saints and with the Merseyside club desperate to pay anything to land their man and Saints presumably now resigned to losing him, keen to get on with finding a successor, this seemed a mere formality.
Indeed most sources were still saying at the beginning of today that Koeman would be unveiled by the end of today (Monday)
Now it seems that this is not going to happen and that the announcement could be delayed a week as Koeman has decided to go off on holiday again and the question is why ?
There seems to be no logical reason why he could not have delayed his departure a day or two and then gone on holiday and there are those that suggest that Koeman is not as happy about the deal as his agent would have you believe.
Could it be that Koeman is wrestling with his conscience ? leaving Saints for big money after constantly telling everyone that he would see out his contract at least would not have been easy for him, he has never behaved in this mercenary fashion before.
Then there are the players who have recently signed long term deals partly because of his assurances that he would be staying stay, again for a man who has prided himself on behaving in an honourable fashion in the past this will all be weighing on his mind.
Lastly though and perhaps most importantly there will be where this leaves his broher Erwin and other members of his staff that he brought with him from the Netherlands, reports say that Everton do not want Erwin and therefore by moving he is effectively putting his brother and indeed his friends out of a job.
When Koeman jetted off on holiday from Saints a few weeks ago without putting pen to paper on a new deal there were those who were nervous, this latest development will not please Everton who wanted to have ths done and dusted and they will worry that as much as he intended returning from his holiday last week and sign a new deal for Saints that when he returns from this one he will have changed his mind about going to Goodison Park.
Certainly he has not had a lot of time to sit and reflect on this career change, his agent and everton have driven this through fast and furious, about the only thing going for it and most football pundits concur on this, that it will make him a very rich man, indeed it has little sign of merit for his career at least in the short to medium term, Everton will worry that a few days rest might make him think that this might lead him to change his mind again.
One thing for sure is that neither Saints or Everton will be pleased he has jetted off leaving everything up in the air, in football you want to know what is happening , not be faced with uncertainty.