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.
READ MORE: Anthony Gordon claims he never meant to 'disrespect Everton' as he pens farewell letter
It wasn't a survival bid that saw a huge turnaround in form or gave rise to blind optimism for this campaign, but it did ensure the Blues preserved the top-flight status they have held since 1954 for another season and enabled them to start to claw their way back to some kind of financial normality after the early years of excess under owner Farhad Moshiri, which wasn't backed up by success to allow for it to be be sustained.
The new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock will be major tool in helping to shape Everton's long-term future. While Goodison Park will remain their spiritual home the truth is that the club had long since outgrown its surroundings if they wanted to keep pace with their Premier League rivals and in the modern game, where maximising commercial opportunity and satisfying the pent up demand for tickets correlates with being able to invest more into what happens on the pitch.
Lampard is now an ex-Everton manager. He now joins an ever-growing list of those to have been dismissed under Moshiri's seven-year reign. Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva and Benitez all had their P45s before Lampard, while Carlo Ancelotti, Moshiri's most ambitious managerial move that saw Evertonians dare to dream again, ended his time on his own terms after being approached to head up Real Madrid's bid to get back to the summit of European football.
So now it is Sean Dyche's turn. A manager who worked wonders on a comparative shoestring budget at Burnley, Dyche demonstrated through the years an ability to get his teams to play to their strengths in order to maximise their output. His impact at Turf Moor lasts beyond his time there and he was a key component in the club creating an infrastructure that would allow for foundations for future success - most notably his desire to see the Clarets' academy improved. It was reflective of the stance that David Moyes had at Everton when he wanted the club to place more emphasis on developing their own players in the mid-2000s.
Speaking to the Training Ground Guru in 2017, Dyche said: "At the very first board meeting I attended (after his 2012 appointment), I asked where the Premier League money had gone from that season [2009/10].
"They said: ‘What do you mean?’ I told them that I had played at Turf Moor loads of times and the changing rooms were still the same.
"They didn’t have a training ground, really. Yet the money had been spent. I told them: ‘You can’t do that again.’ There had to be a bigger picture, a bigger future than that."
Dyche may not immediately appear to be the long-term appointment that some Blues fans may have craved, and in going in the direction of the 51-year-old instead of making what some may have seen as a braver, if much riskier appointment, of someone like Marcelo Bielsa, Davide Ancelotti or Carlos Corberan, it could scream of short-termism.
The issue is that Everton, through how the Moshiri years and the well meaning but misguided spending have gone, simply have to operate with the short term in mind right now, but they also need someone who can think bigger, and that is maybe something that often gets lost when the discussion around Dyche emerges. He is far more than someone who plays 4-4-2, has a tendency to sign mostly British players and knows how to grind out results. He was the catalyst for a club to improve from top to bottom - and that same could now trade places with the Blues if Dyche cannot motivate the squad Lampard and countless other managers have left behind.
It won't be lost on any Evertonians just how damaging relegation to the Championship could be. For the yo-yo Premier League clubs, there is always an acceptance that there is great risk of that happening to them and, like with Norwich City, they plan accordingly through player acquisition and payroll management to ensure that if they do drop down, then they are well positioned to come straight back up and don't face the prospect of falling off a financial cliff edge.
Everton are not set up for being able to take relegation on the chin. They have a major payroll obligation where wages are 96 per cent of turnover, and heading into a league where revenues will more than half through loss of broadcast rights and lower commercial deals, that is a major problem. There is the parachute payment over three years to soften the blow, but for a club that has posted cumulative losses of £372m over the last three years and one that has a lot of players on very good money, and likely plenty without relegation clauses in their contracts, it presents a major problem and increases the pressure on the Blues bouncing back at the first time of asking.
Everton also have the stadium development ongoing. A £500m-plus build that will aid the club's future endeavours, there is still a large chunk of funding to be found. Moshiri recently claimed he was close to securing that funding, something that would be a major development and take away some of the pressure the club would face, especially given that, if relegation happened and no funding had been found, then interest rates on securing the remainder of the funds would likely be higher and add to the cost burden.
To look at the players in the Everton squad at present, appointing Dyche makes more sense than any of the other candidates who were mentioned. It is a squad not blessed with pace but with experienced senior pros throughout, some that Dyche has worked with previously, who if organised well, have more than a fighting chance of grinding out what is needed to stave off what would be an incredibly damaging drop to the second tier of English football.
It needed to have elements of short-termism, Everton need that to aid their financial future. But it is quite easy to be dismissive of the other qualities that Dyche has. He is a person who challenges owners and decision makers, as shown by his push to get the Burnley board invest in the right ways in 2012. He also has European football on his CV and, should the unthinkable happen, a Championship title under his belt.
The Blues need reshaping, but with the transfer window closing tomorrow night and a major overhaul needed, had the club wanted to go in the high-intensity direction of Bielsa, it was something that would have been an enormous challenge to pull off.
Whether Dyche is the man to lead the Blues to a brighter future long term remains to be seen, but he was the right choice for the here and now, and the right choice to better aid the club's bid to safeguard their financial future over the next 12 to 18 months.
They need a steady hand to guide the ship. Financially, there has never been so much at stake.
READ MORE:
- Sean Dyche's first five Everton fixtures as toughest start possible awaits
- Sean Dyche's strongest Everton line-up as Conor Coady and Alex Iwobi decisions made
- Dele Alli responds to Besiktas boss' brutal comment amid honest Everton loan admission
- What Everton players can expect from 'master psychologist' Sean Dyche on first day
- Everton set for £64m windfall but new transfer challenges are on horizon
