sport news How players slipped through Everton's fingers after a frantic search for a ... trends now
It was 9.39pm on Tuesday when Sean Dyche's jeep rolled out of Finch Farm on to Finch Lane.
It was cold, the wind was whipping off the Mersey estuary but still there was a band of hardy fans waiting for him.
Everton's new manager had no option but to stop, given the way the group had circled, but was happy to spend a couple of minutes. He scribbled a few autographs, posed for selfies and was sent on his way with cries of 'good luck'. He will need it.
This pleasant little scene was juxtaposed to all that played out before and after. The very fact there were supporters outside Finch Farm at that time was down to Everton's inability to sign a striker, a failure that falls at the feet of those involved with the club's football operations.
A couple of hours earlier, with frustrations having boiled over, one group headed to Finch Farm and unfurled a banner across the green entrance gates condemning Everton's board as 'liars'.
New Everton boss Sean Dyche faces a tough task after the club failed to sign a striker
A group of Everton fans unfurled a banner at Finch Farm labelling the board as 'liars'
The depth of ill feeling and lack of trust for those in power cannot be overstated.
In an interview recorded on January 17, Farhad Moshiri, the club's majority shareholder, told an Everton Fan Advisory Board member that fears the squad would be weaker by the end of the month were unfounded.
'We need a striker — we will get one,' Moshiri said. 'I have no doubt the second half of the season will be stronger. We have a plan in place in terms of recruitment and performance.'
That plan, increasingly, resembled a frantic charge around the shops on Christmas Eve. You go in with the idea of buying presents, expecting the shelves to be well stocked but realise there is nothing available but tat and chintz, none of which offers quality or value.
Last-minute planning leads to a fiasco and that is the perfect word for this absurd month. It was known in autumn that Everton needed more firepower, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin's fitness inconsistent, so how have they ended up in this mess?
Everything began in December. Frank Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell had decided that Aston Villa's Danny Ings had everything to come in straight away and provide that presence. Ings was aware of the
