And just like that, he was gone.
No Evertonian would have expected to have woken up on Wednesday morning with their football club needing a new manager, but after a whirlwind Tuesday, which culminated in confirmation of Carlo Ancelotti’s return to Real Madrid, the club is on the hunt again.
While Ancelotti’s 10th place finish in his first full season in charge at Goodison Park was nothing to get carried away over, there weren’t many Everton supporters who wanted to see the back of the Italian.
By all accounts, the club was preparing for another summer with him at the helm and the expectations were that he would be backed with some significant funds to propel the team towards a European charge.
Instead, the Toffees are left in a hapless position at the start of a busy and important summer. And it means more instability and inconsistency is on the cards for the blue half of Merseyside.
Since Farhad Moshiri invested in the club in 2016, they’ve been unable to build a foundation with any manager. The Toffees have lurched between styles and recruitment strategies, while a number of coaches have been found to be well short of the level required to keep the team in midtable of the Premier League.
It also means Everton are back to square one in their push towards becoming a team that challenges for silverware and qualifies for continental competitions on a regular basis.
Ancelotti was not a perfect coach and there certainly wasn’t a feeling watching his Everton team that they were on a fast track to greatness. But in him, the Toffees did feel as though they’d found a rock and a presence who would be at the club for the medium term at least, not to mention a man with gravitas who could
Once again it’s not worked out. And once again, Evertonians are left scratching their heads, wondering where the football club goes from here.