It was an hour after the final whistle when, in the lounge adjacent to Goodison Park’s media room, a huge roar went up.
The reason for the clamour soon became apparent when the chanting started: ‘Oumar! Oumar!’ This, genuinely, was a scene nobody could have envisaged. Oumar Niasse had not played for Everton in the Premier League since May 2016 and, but for a wrangle about agents’ fees, his career on Merseyside would have ended on deadline day last month.
Niasse was the £13.5million signing from Lokomotiv Moscow who had been derided by fans, jettisoned by Ronald Koeman and harshly described by some as the worst player to pull on a Royal Blue shirt.