First impressions are always the most important, particularly in a place such as Merseyside. Get off to the wrong start and it is inevitably a long way back.
For Carlo Ancelotti, though, that was never going to be a problem. The Italian had charmed Everton’s majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, the first time they met during a meeting in Munich last December and shown him he had the appetite to restore the club’s fortunes.
Securing Ancelotti’s was an outstanding coup on Moshiri’s behalf, a genuine statement of intent. Everton also spoke to Ralf Ragnick and David Moyes about succeeding Marco Silva but, for Moshiri, the possibility of appointing a three-time Champions League winning-manager could not be missed.