Tuesday night in Madrid, Lisandro Martinez pointed at the top floor. Wednesday, he put out a statement that clarified plenty and apologised for nothing. Thursday, he sat down at Carrington with Jason Wilcox, Omar Berrada and Michael Carrick, and by the evening the word "apologise" was finally in writing. BBC Sport understands he has been fined as well. Manchester United consider the matter closed. The United rooms very much do not, and the argument has moved on from "was he right?" to "what exactly did he say sorry for?"
"Then fine him"
Start with GoodVibesJohn, because the timing is almost funny. John recorded the morning after Atletico, before any of the statements, and went the long way round: Wayne Rooney marching into Sir Alex Ferguson's office in 2010, and Napoleon's line about washing your dirty linen at home. John gets why the ex-pros have closed ranks. The verdict still lands with Martinez: "Sometimes you need to spill the milk onto the floor, because once you start mopping, you'll notice how nasty that floor was."
There's a twist in the closing minutes. If the people upstairs felt disrespected, John said, "then fine him". He also wanted the dressing room to answer on the pitch instead of in the papers. A day and a half later, United did the first part. John also has the best line on the Amazon documentary crew, who must be "licking their lips" right now.
Not an apology, part one
Spill The Tea Lou went live on Wednesday's statement, the one where Martinez said he "spoke out of anger and frustration" and had belief in his "team-mates, our manager and everyone working to help this club move forward". Plenty of people online called it a climbdown. Lou read it out on stream and wasn't having it: "I don't know how you can read that and think he's backing down. He doesn't apologise at all." The point is who gets left out of that list: no owners, no board, no technical director.
Most of the stream is Lou against Gary Neville, who argued the players would feel insulted. Lou's reply is that Neville is still fighting the Rooney row from 2010, and that the two players Neville named, Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire, have both asked for more signings themselves. Steven Gerrard's take gets a fairer hearing. He admired the honesty but said it "doesn't help Michael Carrick on the eve of playing Leeds".
Sorry about the timing
Then the real apology arrived, and Sal at Stretford Post opened Friday's Breaking Dawn show with the question everyone was asking: did Martinez apologise "for telling the truth or for saying it out too loud"? Sal's reading is the timing. The statement says frustration led him to speak "at a time and place that perhaps were not the right ones". By Sal's count, not a word of the criticism was taken back. "That's not an apology. That's not saying something that you regret."
Sal is firmly on the player's side. "Unity is not everybody agreeing with the board," and a club "can demand professionalism without treating uncomfortable questions as disloyalty". Sal keeps coming back to the point Martinez made in Madrid, put in Sal's own words: "How many managers can you change before you admit the problem is bigger than the man in the dugout?"
The show also goes long on Barcelona supposedly circling. That's rumour, so take it as rumour. What BBC Sport reports is simpler: his deal runs to the end of the season, United hold a 12-month option, and nobody has decided whether to use it.
Goldbridge looks at Elland Road
The United Stand went up on Thursday evening, with Mark Goldbridge previewing what the channel calls a must-win game for Carrick at Leeds. The headline is "Martinez DROPPED!". Treat that as a call, not team news. ESPN's sources say he'll be available if selected, and BBC Sport says it remains to be seen whether Carrick picks him.
What we do know is how big the game is. United go to Leeds United at 14:00 UK time on Sunday sitting 13th, with six points from six league games and two wins from nine in all competitions. Carrick has a press conference today, and the Martinez question is coming whether he likes it or not.
Over at the Emirates, popcorn
Every United meltdown needs a rival in the comments, and NorthsideLDN went straight for it: "Martinez apologises... and STILL gets fined! Man United are a joke!" Under the needle there's a real opinion, and it's the dissenter's case from earlier in the week. In the channel's own description, it's "the right message from the wrong messenger". Carrick "looks out of his depth", and several players, Martinez included, "need to go".
It's an Arsenal channel, so the laughing is the point. The same split runs through United's own rooms, though: half think Martinez said what the fanbase has been shouting for months, and the other half think a defender in his contract year was the wrong man to say it.
Webby & O'Neill pick up the statement
Webby & O'Neill are live this morning with the most pointed title in the pile: "Martinez apologises... but look what he hasn't said!" The pair have billed it as a look at the statement after the talks with Carrick, Wilcox and Berrada. Has Martinez backed down, or do the people running the club still have questions to answer?
It's the same question Sal and Lou were asking from different ends of the week. Nobody here thinks a written apology changes the squad United have to take to Elland Road.
The argument
The club wants this closed, and on paper it is: a meeting, a statement, a fine, and a line about being "fully focused on winning together". The rooms have noticed what the apology covers. It covers the time and the place. It doesn't cover the recruitment, the technical director or the squad Carrick was handed, and that's why nobody believes it's over. Lose at Leeds on Sunday and the Madrid interview will be the first thing played back, because Carrick was already under pressure before any of this.