In the end, Bobby Valentine couldn't stop the negative momentum from September 2011, and the result was the need for yet another Red Sox manager.

Some will suggest that the players did in the manager, which -- in terms of on-field performance -- absolutely is true. If Valentine had won out of the gate, the Valentine Way is the right way and the Red Sox go from there. But they didn't win, leading to a ball of chaos that just continued to gain steam as the season progressed.

The pitchers didn't pitch. And, for the most part, the high-priced players underperformed or couldn't get on the field. This was the main cause for the Red Sox' 69-win season. But the manager's responsibility for the collapse revolves around an inability to do whatever it took to slow down the runaway train that was a September-induced dysfunction.

Valentine couldn't put the brakes on, and in some key cases hit the accelerator instead.

Three instances jump to the forefront when it comes to identifying where things took a turn for the worse when it came to Valentine managing his team and its situation.

1. THE AVILES INCIDENT

For a core group of Red Sox players, Valentine was going to be a tough sell. He was 180 degrees different from predecessor Terry Francona. The presentation across the board in spring training was foreign, whether because of the videos in the clubhouse, the execution of meetings and drills, or even Valentine's methods with the media.

It was why when Valentine lit into Mike Aviles for not executing a pop-up drill correctly -- one during which the staff was attempting to get the infielders to call for shallow fly balls -- it was met with some anger among the team's veteran players.

Aviles didn't respond at the time to the terse instruction, and only briefly talked to Valentine about the incident the next day, but a core group of players was sufficiently taken aback that the players voiced displeasure about what had transpired.

The Red Sox shortstop went on to go about his business, even denying the incident when contacted by WEEI.com during a series in Minnesota. (Aviles declined comment earlier in the week when approached about the incident, although other team sources say the impetus for his denial was to not bring attention to the situation and potentially make an already uneasy early season atmosphere worse.)

And while the moment might seem innocuous on some levels, among a key faction of players still trying to form its opinion of Valentine it was a damaging moment that pushed the negativity to the forefront at a key time.

As ESPN.com's Buster Olney correctly pointed out Thursday, it proved to be an incident that sent the relationship between the manager and the players down the wrong path.

2. CALLING OUT YOUKILIS

When Valentine was asked prior to the Red Sox' regular-season finale about any regrets he might have had regarding the 2012 campaign, he identified the comment made to Channel 7's Joe Amorosino the day before the Patriots Day game during which the manager questioned if his third baseman was as "emotionally" invested as he'd been in the past. But his reason for the regret revolved around the miscalculation regarding the reaction from the player, public and media.

The reaction wasn't the problem. The inability to understand how important it was to communicate to the player before the media was the chief crime.

While Youkilis knew of the comment even before its airing, most players didn't hear about it until they arrived in the clubhouse around 8 a.m. As the minutes passed by that morning, word trickled through the team regarding what had been said, allowing for even more ammunition for those casting a wary eye toward the new manager.

The Dustin Pedroia comment suggesting such public criticism wasn't "how we do things around here" not only offered a chance for a player to exert a form of leadership in protecting a respected teammate but also led to an opportunity to surface some widespread frustration with the manager that hadn't dissipated since spring training.

3. A CLUBHOUSE MEETING

One day after a June 17 Olney column came out in which he classified the Red Sox clubhouse as toxic, Valentine called a team meeting. The Red Sox were coming off two straight wins in Chicago against the Cubs, but the get-together didn't approach a positive tone.

Unlike some meetings throughout the course of the season that proved productive, this one offered another wave of negativity in the eyes of many of the players. Not only had Olney's article presented a critical view of Valentine's grip on the team, but the manager was coming under a wave of continued criticism as his team resided at an underachieving 33-33. Also, Valentine had been spoken to by upper management regarding his comments to rookie Will Middlebrooks after a particularly tough inning, an incident brought to light to the higher-ups via a text from a dugout presence.

In the meeting, Valentine directed his ire at numerous key players, while also criticizing those questioning some of his managerial tactics. The tone of the session struck an unappetizing tone for a vast majority of the team. The vitriol exuded by the manager not only continued a festering negativity, but actually enraged corners of the clubhouse.

While the Aviles incident might have started pushing perception in a certain direction, there was perhaps no one moment that lowered the boom when it came to some players' anger toward their new manager.

Some relationships with Valentine did improve throughout the course of the season, and the well-documented meeting in New York at the end of July had more to do with the manager's relationship with the coaching staff than the players' issues with Valentine.

But by the time late-summer desperation started slowing down any player discord, it was too late. The momentum of a month, an offseason and a spring training had never been derailed, leading to what the Red Sox currently find themselves with -- another managerial search.