Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Admir Steffen is living that version at Everton, and it tends to show in the first month.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Admir Steffen is 19, and Everton have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Pearson has just signed for Everton, and for once the answer mattered.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mateo Klimowicz has his answer from Everton; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Everton have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Everton training over how hard people work
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Camilo Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Iliman N'Diaye is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Iliman N'Diaye is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Position 18 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Samuel Cook did not need any: 8.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Colpani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stephen Taylor has just signed for Everton, and for once the answer mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leon Elliott will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Everton the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The run now stands at 25, and the questions being asked around Everton are no longer polite ones.
The terraces1 Feb 2038
The mood at Everton has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Everton are no longer polite ones.
The terraces7 Dec 2037
The mood at Everton has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Everton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Camilo Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jeroen Dumfries has just signed for Everton, and for once the answer mattered.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Jonathan Murphy knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Jeroen Dumfries is 19, and Everton have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Everton has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Colpani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lanroy Machine has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Camilo Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Everton will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Colpani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simon Marshall is living that version at Everton, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Everton will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Santos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad4 May 2037
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Colpani's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iliman N'Diaye signs something — a contract at Everton or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.50 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Camilo Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
11 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Santos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Harry Howell could not do
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
36 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
607 appearances across 19 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Position 3, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Harry Howell was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.07 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Colpani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Queens Park Rangers the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Everton will enjoy reviewing.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.67 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Tyler Dibling was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Bolton Wanderers the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Everton will enjoy reviewing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iliman N'Diaye provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 9.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
2‑6 against Derby County, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
A brace, and Tyler Dibling takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tyler Dibling provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 goals in one match, Tyler Dibling on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Everton and Derby County.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Everton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Everton have had the benefit of it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Everton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
554 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Moutinho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Everton the goodbyes have quietly begun.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Everton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Everton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Everton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Colpani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Iliman N'Diaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.