Changing manager mid-season in order to try and stave off the threat of relegation to the Championship wasn't the plan for Everton.
When Frank Lampard was hired to try and steer the Blues to safety last season after the reign of the unpopular Rafael Benitez, it was an appointment done with one eye on the present and one on the future.
Everton stayed up and Lampard, the team and the fans forged a bond during the back end of a tremendously difficult campaign, when the effects of the club's imposed restrictions relating, as a result of skirting close to the limit of the Premier League's profit and sustainability (P&S) rules, saw it hamstrung in the transfer market.
