Summer signing sagas have the ability to both thrill and exasperate in equal measure.
And the movers and shakers within the Barcelona boardroom have been left nursing the effects of an almighty transfer hangover after failing to land Neymar .
It has been three months of bluffs, offers and false reports that makes Brexit talks look like a tea party but the discussions have stopped.
Barca were desperate to bring their former star back to the Nou Camp this summer and were confident they could reach an agreement with Paris Saint-Germain .
The game was on though, or was it?
It's understood the Ligue 1 champions had intimated to Barcelona an offer of €200m for the Brazilian superstar but fresh reports suggest a deal was never going to happen.
Spanish publication Sport , via Le Parisien, claim PSG's president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told key decision makers early on that a Neymar departure wasn't on his agenda.
Al-Khelaifi addressed club officials and told them the French big spenders would only accept €300m for their prized asset despite many believing a more reasonable fee could be agreed.
Neymar, entering his prime at the age of 27, has been battling injuries for much of the past 12 months and many football experts believed it was fanciful to think Barcelona, or rivals Real Madrid , were ever going to stump €200m, never mind the fee Al-Khelaifi was insisting on behind closed doors.
PSG boss Thomas Tuchel, who doesn't have the final say on transfers, was keen on Barcelona outcast Ousmane Dembele as a makeweight in any deal to take Neymar back to Catalonia.
Nelson Semedo, the Portuguese left-back rated by everyone outwith the Nou Camp, was another player PSG looked as a potential Neymar sweetener, but an agreement couldn't be reached.
Reports in France suggest Al-Khelaifi and the PSG bigwigs, including director of football Leonardo, believe Barcelona came to the negotiation table with their "hands empty", and they felt the onus was on the La Liga champions to push the boat out to make a deal happen.
PSG, who are still searching for an elusive Champions League title, were determined not to come off second best to one of their European rivals.
And that's why they pushed desperately to convince Neymar to stick around for another season.
What will be fascinating to watch moving forward is if these two teams can move past a summer of frustration and thrash out a deal moving forward.
Arsenal and Liverpool endured a frosty relationship in the aftermath of the Gunners' failed coup to land the Uruguay goal machine and no further offer materialised.
But Liverpool and Southampton called a truce after the Saints made an official complaint following the Anfield side's bid to land Virgil van Dijk. A £75m deal was struck four months later and everyone was happy.
Barcelona will be hoping their Neymar window hasn't closed for ever.
