For the past three years, Everton have kicked off their season full of optimism following a seemingly productive summer transfer window.
Under Ronald Koeman in 2017, when the club spent big in the summer transfer market, people thought that that could be the year they could gate-crash the top six.
They did not.
In fact, Koeman was sacked after nine Premier League games with the Toffees in 18th place.
Last season, Marco Silva arrived and brought renewed hope and expectancy. Again, Everton started poorly and ended up finishing eighth; a whole 12 points behind an extremely poor sixth placed Manchester United.