Everton, the grand old club that Frank Lampard is about to walk into, are riven by dissent, shackled to an unpredictable owner by the golden handcuffs of his wealth and barely able to glimpse a glorious past fading further into sepia.
They are a club tortured by unrequited ambition, gripped by old grievances and haunted by the spectre of being consigned to English football's second tier for the first time in 68 years.
They are a club who have found out that one man's money is not a panacea. Lampard is a strong character who has had a crash course in football politics in his two jobs in management, at Derby County and Chelsea.