You only have to go back nine months to find the perfect illustration of why Everton want Sean Dyche in their hour of need.
Back in April, he couldn’t have detailed more bluntly the problems that beset the Goodison club, and prompted a dramatic comeback win for Burnley which looked pivotal in the Premier League relegation scrap.
Speaking after his side produced a fightback from 2-1 down to win 3-2, he revealed his team talk at half time. “I said to them ‘I'm not sure these know how to win a game’. It’s hard to explain, but sometimes you sense that a team might have lost how to win a game,” he said, without pulling any punches.
At the time, it rankled with Everton and then manager Frank Lampard, and some terse phone calls were made between the two bosses…with the Blues having what appeared the last laugh, as they survived by the skin of their teeth while Burnley went down.
Yet that didn’t lessen the truth of Dyche’s words. Everton have fewer wins in the Premier League this season than any other club, just three in 20 matches. Their last victory came back in October.
They are a club who have forgotten how to win, with Lampard sacked after winning just one of his last 12 matches, his record the second worst of any manager in Goodison history.
Only now has the stark truth of those statistics fully dawned on Farhad Moshiri, the club owner who has invested more than £800m in the club, but has largely appeared oblivious to the threats to that investment.
They are joint bottom, and it will take a near miracle for them to find the minimum of 20 points from their remaining 18 games it will require to escape the relegation zone.
The blunt truth, as Dyche likes to deliver it, is this: relegation would be not only a disaster, but possibly terminal. There is a stadium which requires at least £500m of additional funding to be completed, and no one will provide that funding to a Championship club.
The financial implications for a business who have lost more than £400m in the last three years - and are under special measures in relation to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules - don’t even bear thinking about.
Some supporters think a reset of going down and regrouping may not be the worst idea, but the reality of clubs being relegated in desperate financial positions tell a different story. Few come back swiftly. Many fall into oblivion.
Those are the stakes. And so on paper, Marcelo Bielsa or Davide Ancelotti - who has never managed anywhere, never mind in England - may seem like good ideas. But in reality, Everton need someone who can stave off that oblivion.
Dyche apparently delivered a clear headed assessment of the team’s position in his interviews with Moshiri and Director of Football Kevin Thelwell. He will take a no-nonsense approach to survival, and the players will understand that.
But the hope is, beyond this season, he has more depth to his coaching qualities. There is a feeling among many at Goodison that there is more than a hint of David Moyes about him. A pragmatic manager, but one who can be more expansive as the talent of his squad develops.
Moyes produced some exciting teams at Goodison, and some exciting times, qualifying for the Champions League, and playing possession-based football with the likes of Mikel Arteta.
Most importantly at all, he tapped into the passion of Everton, the emotion of the fanbase. He made Goodison a terrible place to visit for opponents, and produced a team that knew how to win.
Now is not the time for flights of fancy for Everton, it is not the time to gamble, as Moshiri did when appointing Rafa Benitez or Marco Silva, or flirting with Bielsa. It is the time to face a grim reality of the current position, and take sensible steps to address it.
