"The philosophy of thinking finishing tenth was OK, started the slide."
The quote from Everton legend Neville Southall was written in bold, white letters on the backdrop of a blue banner held up in the away end. What Everton would give to be tenth right now.
Instead they languish near the bottom of the Premier League table after a miserable 2-0 defeat at West Ham United that was watched, unlike the loss to Southampton seven days earlier, by board members including chairman Bill Kenwright, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale and non-executive director Graeme Sharp.
With them, witnessing the club he has spent billions on to only go backwards, was majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. On his first appearance at a game since October 2021 it would be interesting to know what caught his attention most. Was it the panic in the defence or the frustration in the away end? Or will he leave the London Stadium with the same faith he claimed to have in Frank Lampard and his board barely 10 days earlier?
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There are only so many times you can dress up a defeat. Everton have lost four of their five league games since the World Cup break. That run stretches beyond the unique six week opportunity to reset and improve to six of their last seven, and eight of their last nine if you include the Carabao Cup and FA Cup exits to Bournemouth and Manchester United respectively. It is a run so bad that flashes of brilliance, such as Demarai Gray's spectacular strike at Manchester City, or displays of fight and passion, like in the battling defeat at Old Trafford, do nothing to relieve the pain felt by supporters or the pressure that is now in danger of overwhelming Lampard.
Everton are at a crossroads. There is a fortnight until their next game, when second bottom will face top and Arsenal will once again visit Goodison Park to the sight of fans in protest. One third of the transfer window remains and the club is on the cusp of strengthening but its squad desperately needs serious work. Off the pitch, in the hours before the players stepped out under sunshine in east London, the club's Fan Advisory Board submitted dozens of questions about the running of the club that showcased the mistrust, suspicion and concern running through sections of a terrified fanbase. The club has committed to engaging with that process but drawing up a satisfactory response may be beyond an organisation that appears broken.
How those at the very top at Everton respond to each of those three challenges will be crucial. Something must change, that is clear - whether it be in the dugout, the genuine strengthening of a squad bereft of confidence and quality, or a real attempt to achieve what may be impossible and rebuild relations with the supporters, Everton's most powerful attribute on and off the pitch.
This is a fanbase that is crucial to the club's survival ambitions but that was justifiably disillusioned and angry even before the incendiary claims that the club had intelligence, shared with Merseyside Police but not compiled alongside the force, to suggest it was 'not safe' for its directors to attend Goodison Park.
Whatever impression Mr Moshiri left the ground with, he surely cannot be ignorant of the scale of the problems that have festered beneath him. The table and the banners in the away end should be all the proof he needs. And the next fortnight is his final chance to properly influence Everton's second consecutive fight for Premier League survival.
Without change, Goodison Park's final full season is likely to be in the second flight. That was once again clear as Everton fell to another damaging defeat against a side that, like them, was in trouble. This game was drifting tamely until Said Benrahma's rasping effort from 20 yards was brilliantly tipped over by Jordan Pickford.
It sparked the hosts into action and they had the momentum when Kurt Zouma rose highest to flick on a cross despite being surrounded by defenders. Jarrod Bowen did not just react quickest - he was the only one to react - and poked in the bouncing ball from yards out. It inspired a collapse that almost allowed Michail Antonio to score at the back post but he instead sent his free header across goal.
The reprieve lasted minutes and this game was finished when Antonio skipped beyond a sliding James Tarkowski and picked out Bowen, whose run was picked up by neither Amadou Onana nor Yerry Mina. For the first time this month Everton emerged from half-time the better team.
Dwight McNeil and Alex Iwobi were moved to wing-back and each sent threatening balls across the box that somehow evaded Dominic Calver-Lewin's outstretched limbs. Gueye forced a diving save from Lukasz Fabianski but West Ham posed a threat on the break and Emerson forced another stunning save from Pickford. Everton's only salvation was the late Aston Villa winner that means Southampton remain beneath them in the table.
Sadly, watching the scorelines elsewhere looks set to become a grim feature of Everton's season for the second campaign in a row.
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