Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez have all been tried.
And all, to varying degrees, have failed.
And so appointing either Wayne Rooney or Frank Lampard, two names on Everton's managerial shortlist, would mark an abrupt departure from the type of manager that Farhad Moshiri usually goes for.
But maybe it is what is needed.
Sure Marco Silva (once again proving his ability with table-topping Fulham) was only 40 when appointed Everton boss in 2018, three years younger than Lampard is now, but he came without a stellar playing career behind him.
And so while the players still liked Silva at the time of his sacking, 18 months later, it was clear they were no longer responding as they had been.
Just like with Koeman, Allardyce, Ancelotti and Benitez. So surely it's time Everton tried something different?
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The players have seen off a succession of managers and are a big part of the problems which have besieged Goodison Park in recent years.
But, as Benitez is the latest to discover, it is easier to sack and appoint a manager than it is to get rid of 10 or more under-performing players and replace them.
Far easier.
And so to get this lot playing well, consistently, and delivering performances that the Everton faithful can get behind, then it needs a voice they will be more inclined to listen to.
Rooney and Lampard are on Everton's radar as the club searches for a six new permanent boss in as many years. And what they lack in experience and track records compared to past bosses, they make up for it with other attributes.
Young coaches, fresh ideas and, just maybe, a standing with the modern player that means they are listened to and get responses, in a way previous managers have consistently failed to do so over the past six years.
Many players in the current squad will have grown up watching and admiring the pair and a number in the Blues squad played with Rooney when he returned to Goodison in 2017.
And so, maybe, it is only a young coach, of that profile from their playing days, that can bring this rabble together? That will have the authority and level of respect amongst the whole squad, to help sort out Everton's sorry season.
Just a thought.
Appointing a new manager with, relatively, such little experience will come with risk, but the counter argument is these players are not responding to managers with tons of it, so the club must attempt something new.
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Rooney is only 12 months into his managerial career and has never coached in the top flight. He has 61 Championship matches to his name in increasingly trying circumstances at Pride Park.
It's remarkable that after a 21 point deduction, Rooney still has Derby in with more than a fighting chance of staying up.
Lampard was in the Chelsea hot-seat for 57 top flight matches and, before that, took charge of Derby in the Championship 49 times.
His promotion of players from the Stamford Bridge youth ranks is seen as his biggest success from a short spell in the dugout.
Would a Rooney or Lampard type figure help buck the managerial trend at Everton and be held in such regard by the players that poor runs of form don't spiral out of control and ruin seasons?
After everything, you can't help but feel it is worth a try.
At the appointment of Benitez in June, Moshiri repeatedly used words and phrases along a theme, such as: "experience of managing at the highest level" and "who has a strong track record of delivering success" while "proven winner" was another to crop up.
But after a run of just one win in 13 Premier League matches, it was evident that for too many of the squad, Benitez's CV and track record counted for little.
Most were prepared to listen when it was going well but when injuries hit, and the going got tough, too many failed him and the club and the fans. As they have done before.
Maybe it's the time to find a young coach, in the early throes of his career, who has been a proven winner as a player?
After the fatal defeat to Norwich City on Saturday, there was a mood in the squad that a change of manager felt inevitable.
The following afternoon, Benitez was gone. Everton now need to decide which direction they take.
Rooney, of course, also brings with him the knowledge of having played for the club and being an Evertonian.
He will know what sort of team the fans can get behind and what is expected.
But he will know as well as anyone that his club is confused, that patience from the top is not there and that Everton have lurched from one crisis to another.
Even the names alongside him on the candidates' list speak of that. On one hand the club have been looking at Roberto Martinez but, on the other, Rooney and Lampard.
There is no strategy there - at least not a clear and obvious one.
But now the Belgium FA have put the brakes on Everton's approach for Martinez, perhaps, by chance, the manager search does have greater clarity.
Moshiri, it is believed, still needs convincing that appointing Rooney, for example, is the way to go, concerned that hiring a manager at the younger end of the scale could lead to the players enjoying too much power. The same, you imagine, would apply to Lampard.
Rooney looks like the last person who would stand for players questioning his authority but, make no mistake, the squad currently has too much power anyway, given they have seen off a list of managers.
But the point with Rooney, and Lampard, is they might be able to speak more of the players' language and work in a way which brings more out of them, consistently.
And that is not to say Koeman, Ancelotti and Benitez are not very good coaches and managers because - to varying extents - their record shows that they are.
Ancelotti and Benitez have packed CVs but even they were unable to get this lot going.
Maybe the crossroads at which Everton now find themselves offers the chance to break free from much of the recent past and appoint a different type of manager.
