When arguments end, they often do so with two sides simply unable to find anything like common ground, let alone reach some kind of agreement or understanding.
History is littered with such disputes, that linger for years, decades, sometimes even centuries.
Creationism vs Evolution is one. Sweet or salted popcorn (toning it down a touch) is another.
Football, especially in this social media age has plenty. Is it Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo who is the world's best player? Is Pep Guardiola a genius or a fraud?
Of course, there is also whether he is indeed 28 or 29?
But this week has brought us something new, centred around Carlos Tevez and his Manchester United exit.
The Argentine, who arrived in English football at West Ham in 2006 - parked via third party owners before being moved to Old Trafford the following year - shone during his debut season in red, helping fire Sir Alex Ferguson's side to the 2007-08 Premier League title and the Champions League in Moscow.
But his second campaign has largely been deemed to have been less successful during the past 11 years.
United elected not to take up their option to sign him permanently and Tevez ultimately moved across the city to join Manchester City, 'Welcome to Manchester' and all that.
This week, Gary Neville stated: "What annoyed me about Tevez was that he downed tools in his second season.
"I felt disappointed that, as a professional, he didn't act the right way."
That "downed tools" remark brought a response by Kia Joorabchian, Tevez's long-time. As you would expect, he defended his client, dismissing any suggestion that his conduct was not up to scratch.
On Friday, Sky Sports News brought the two together for a face-to-face (kind of) throwdown.
Joorabchian went first with his declarations, before Neville issued his response.
Here, in full, are the two sides to the story...
Kia Joorabchian's opening statement
“I’m here because I feel that Gary said something a couple of days ago and I think that he was absolutely wrong.
“I often let things go but I think that when you go after somebody and you make a load of wrong and incorrect statements, I think that by letting it go it will not do the benefit to the public of listening to fake information.
“Gary mentioned about Carlos [Tevez] down-tooling and his professionalism and he also mentioned that there were problems in his second year, about people talking in his ear, his people talking in his ear.
“So generally I have three comments and three questions for Gary.
“In terms of the people he claims were talking into his ear, I’d like to know who he thinks were talking and what they were saying into his ear?
“Because unless he was hacking them or taping him, it’s impossible for him to know what they’re apparently saying in his ear and I’d like to know who those people are.
“Furthermore I must apologise - I gave an incorrect stat during my previous interview, I said Gary played four times that year, he actually played once during Carlos’ first year because unfortunately Gary was injured - and he played 10 minutes against Rome.
“When Gary made a comparison between Year One and Year Two, Gary could not have known too much about Year One, because he played 10 minutes that year. He was mostly in the treatment table, and that’s the actual year he actually said good things about Carlos.
“And finally, I think Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the greatest managers of my time and irrespective of what side of the hairdryer you were on, you had nothing but respect for the man.
“The one thing I think I learned in my time about Sir Alex was that he had his finger to the pulse all the time. He was a strong coach, he knew what his players were doing in the training ground, off the training ground, at home, on a weekday, and by Gary making those comments of the second year, he’s in some ways questioning whether Sir Alex had his finger to the pulse.
“Because Sir Alex picked Carlos 51 times during that season, of 2008-09. He picked [Wayne] Rooney, 49 times, [Dimitar] Berbatov 44 times and Gary himself only played 29 in that season.
“In those moments, Carlos played 51 games, picked by Sir Alex, 15 goals, seven assists. Berbatov 14 goals, 11 assists, Rooney, 20 goals, 13 assists.
“Sir Alex would not have picked someone 51 times during that season, as Gary well knows, if they were down-tooling, unless Gary thinks that Sir Alex took his eye off the ball.”
Gary Neville's riposte
“I’ll answer the three questions one by one Kia.
“In terms of the first one, the period after Christmas when it was quite obvious that Manchester United weren’t going to exercise the option, there is no doubt that Carlos in that last few months of the season became disinterested, distracted; he wasn’t the same around the training pitch, he went into more of a sulky mood because he was disappointed that the club weren’t signing him.
“You’ll know that Carlos was definitely not the same player in the last four/five months of the season. I don’t know what stats you’re referring to there, what I did yesterday was look at the Premier League and Champions League stats of Carlos over those two seasons and it refers to the third question.
“I said two days ago that Carlos was among the best front three that I’ve ever seen in the Premier League.
“These are the stats in Premier League from 2007-08 and 2008-09: In the first six months Carlos played 18 times, 18 starts and seven goals, in the second six months he had 13 starts and seven goals.
“But if you look at the last year, he only played 18 times - the same as the first six months in its entirety - and he only had five goals in his second year in the Premier League.
“So Carlos’ performances in the second year dipped and the same in the Champions League where he scored a lot less goals.
“So my view is there were definitely other complications that Carlos had in terms of the club not triggering his option, you’ve admitted that, and I saw Carlos in the last five months at the club - I don’t need to do my research, I was watching the boy.
“And the thing about Carlos is, Carlos was a warrior on the football pitch. He was an immense player. In his first 12 months at Manchester United I’ve never seen anything more brilliant than him with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“However, in the last four months the drop in his manner and his performances, just because he was maybe not being taken on by the club, was alarming.
“When I refer to the people in his ear, it was true at that Carlos was owned by third party ownership, at that time it was legal, there was no problem with it.
“But I think Manchester City paid £50million to his owners, whereas Manchester United were supposed to pay £25million I believe for his option, and I just felt there was so much distraction, so much noise around how much the third party owners were going to make.
“These were things that were in Carlos’ ear all the time, the club weren’t exercising his option, he wasn’t getting picked in the team as much - those appearances that you name, a lot of them were substitute appearances - so he was definitely a different person in those last five months at the club.
“What I would say is that ‘downed tools’ might be a little bit crass. But Carlos was distracted, he was different and he certainly wasn’t anywhere near the level in the last four months at the club, you must accept that.”
In summing up...
Ultimately, over the 'downed tools' remark, there was some give, but neither man is backing down.
Both remain consistent in their evaluations of the situation, their accounts of Tevez's Old Trafford spell and aren't for turning.
And both are likely right in terms of what they perceived at the time and what they remember of the situation - they're just coming at it from different vantage points. Ten years from now, don't expect either to have changed.
There is scope for different, more centralised interpretations from those on the outside, something which history has shown is often the case in such debates.
But wherever you stand and whatever your take, you can't deny it made for great TV.
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