In the quieter moments of his evening contemplation, Rafa Benitez might just have wondered if any of it was really worth the hassle?
After another long, uninspiring day at the office - such as after a loss at Norwich or Brentford, Brighton or, most pointedly of all, a 4-1 shellacking to Liverpool at Goodison Park - Benitez, when the front door closed on his home on the Wirral, would have been forgiven for pondering.
The soul-searching will have centred around whether floundering in the nether regions of the Premier League as Everton manager, with virtually an entire fanbase against him, was really worth risking his Liverpool legacy for.
This, after all, was the manager who was a living legend to all at Anfield just six short months ago; the mastermind behind arguably the greatest single night in their history on May 25, 2005.
