Frank Lampard put it so succinctly himself, even in the immediate aftermath of a defeat at Spurs so devastating, the fans couldn’t even vocalise dissent.
“I looked hard at the situation before I came in, and the base stats don’t lie…the things not good enough were there to see,” was his grim assessment of the situation.
And that is the point. One of England's most talented and recognisable footballers knew what he was getting into when he accepted the Everton job, knew his ambitions as a manager were on the line.
