Rafael Benitez, Everton manager.
It's been a year since the club stepped into the truly bizarre, making the most controversial appointment that football on Merseyside has ever seen. Even thinking about it now will still baffle many supporters who could see what was to come from a mile away.
It wasn't just that the Spaniard was a former Liverpool manager, although it'd be wrong to suggest that didn't at least play a factor in the minds of some. Many fans just were not enthused by his previous spells at Newcastle or with Dalian Professional in China, and they didn't see him as the right option to progress the club at that point in time.
Carlo Ancelotti's surprise departure was no doubt a hugely disappointing moment, but this was seen by many as perhaps an opportunity to change tact and approach. Perhaps employ a progressive manager, maybe someone still young and learning their trade, to take the club forwards into a new era - alongside then-director of football Marcel Brands.
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Graham Potter's named was mentioned, Christophe Galtier earned a lot of plaudits from certain fans - even Frank Lampard at the time was lauded by some. But, you didn't have many fans calling for Benitez to be placed in charge.
The logic was that this was a manager closer to the mould of the outgoing Ancelotti, and so perhaps the stark effect of the Italian's departure might be less so. It would be a more pragmatic style of football, with someone who so often reiterated that he "knew the city" well.
However, without money to work with in the transfer window, the Spaniard was always going to be on the back foot. He wasn't someone that would have been Brands' first choice, and their later power struggle which would lead to the Dutchman's exit in December was probably testament to that.
But at the time, despite any of the logic that would come from supporters of the decision, it could only strike many as ultimately strange. Everton realistically needed someone who would be in place to create a stable period leading up to the club's first matches in a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock - was Benitez evert going to be that man?
The obvious fear was that one bad patch of form, which was almost inevitable given the consistency issues that had been rampant through the squad under previous managers, would already be the beginning of the end for the manager. Starting on such a low base in terms of general support from the stands and with little funds behind him to change matters in terms of new arrivals, how much could he do to effectively win over as many fans as possible?
Eventually, those worries were confirmed. From October onwards the Blues struggled massively, plummeted towards the bottom end of the table, saw numerous protests against the running of the club and then were on the hunt for a new manager once more after a disastrous defeat to bottom-of-the-table Norwich in mid-January.
The most frustrating thing for many supporters is that they could see it coming. However, Farhad Moshiri clearly did not.
He was won over by a big name and the gravitas of a manager such as Benitez, who had clearly conducted a lot of research about the role and by all accounts interviewed very well for the position. It is these decisions, however, which left some with major questions regarding how the billionaire was running the club.
His financial commitment cannot be questioned, as he continues to pump millions into matters on and off the pitch. But, ignoring the swell of fan belief and appointing Benitez was a huge risk to take at a time when the club really needed stability more than anything - and it certainly did not pay off.
Now with reports of a takeover gathering pace - the club and Moshiri are staying relatively silent on the issue as you might expect -, the mood among fans is telling. A poll conducted by Sky Sports reporter Alan Myers on Twitter last week concluded that, after over 10,000 had their say, 91% of those asked would welcome a takeover of the club.
Of course there are caveats to that poll - there is no way to know how many of those who voted are Evertonians, and the fact that social media is not a wider representation of the fanbase - but it's still an interesting point to note. How much would the decision to appoint Benitez have been playing in some minds when they cast their vote?
Certainly the most controversial choice the Blues have made in some years, there's no doubt it had a major impact on what was to come over the course of a tumultuous 2021/22 season. Nobody can know what might have been Everton's future if they had indeed gone down another route a year ago today, but now they find themselves potentially in another period of huge flux.
Huge swathes of fans will take no comfort in being proven right over the appointment of Benitez, though. In fact, it's a period that many would rather forget about entirely.
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