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Bernardo Silva is Manchester City captain this season but he has dropped a few hints that he could leave the club at the end of the season.
How to go about replacing the irreplacable might be a question Pep Guardiola has to wrestle with over the next seven months or so.
It's something Manchester City have managed previously. Big players have left the Etihad in recent years and replacements have stepped up. Vincent Kompany, Fernandinho, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero have all left, and while their contributions were celebrated, things didn't fall apart without them.
It's been a similar story this season, with Nico Gonzalez stepping out of the shadows to fill in for Rodri as he continues his elusive search for form and fitness after a serious knee injury, but another significant change is also on the way.
At the end of this season, it looks likely Bernardo Silva will bring the curtain down on his nine-year City career. He is out of contract in the summer and will be desperate to depart having lifted a trophy in his year as club captain.
All the signs are pointing towards Silva opting for the exit door. As he said earlier this season, "I know exactly what I'm going to do, but it's not the time to focus on it."
He offered similar sentiments after being handed the armband by Guardiola in the summer and those aren't the comments of a player haggling over a new deal. They suggest that a player who has often toyed with the idea of a new challenge and considered leaving will finally take his bow.
At first glance, replacing him doesn't seem to be so difficult. Even as club captain this season, he has started just 10 of City's 17 games.
But you need to look at the games he does start to see how important he is. He has been on the pitch for all but two minutes of the games against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.
After Sunday's win against the defending champions, Guardiola again waxed lyrical about his captain. The headlines might have fallen the way of Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku, but Guardiola saw just how important Silva was.
"In the way we played today, he is a master," he said. "The tempo, winning the ball, accelerate, decelerate, the intuition [to know] where the space is, how to manage the situations and so many things. He is one of the most clever players I have ever met.
"Bernardo struggled last season, but he was there. Every. Single. Game. Exhausted. After 50 or 60 minutes [of matches last season], he could not run one more minute.
"At certain moments, he said, 'Pep, I'm drained. My mind is not [there] any more, the feet.' But he was there. And I said many times to my players, and to him, that will not be forgotten. That is why he is my captain. Because in the bad moments, he was there."
Guardiola loves the influence Silva has, not only in the dressing room, but as an on-pitch tactical leader. The first line of that description speaks to how he managed and controlled the game against Liverpool. The 31-year-old was the conductor for the performance, forcing it when required, slowing it down when needed.
That is what City need to replace last year. They aren't looking for a midfield that can start 60% to 70% of games. They are looking for someone who can match that level of game intelligence on the biggest occasions, and that is very difficult to find.
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