“There are times when I stand up in front of a full-length mirror and act like a contortionist. I twist my neck and I stare at my ass. My fat butt cheeks aren’t a particularly edifying spectacle, but that’s not really the point. I look at them and I think, ‘There are so many wounds back there, even if you can’t see them’.”

It might sound unconventional but this is the new Everton manager’s way of describing what it is like to live the life of an elite football coach. Carlo Ancelotti was describing pressure, or as he put it in his 2009 autobiography, an existence when that generous derriere of his is permanently “perched on the volcano”. “I live with the threat of being fired,” he declared of his managerial life and he has indeed been sacked many times, in victory, in defeat, once even in a corridor at the home of his new club, Goodison Park - but always very lucratively.

His former clubs since those early days at Reggiana and Parma are a roll call of many of Europe’s elite: Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, even Napoli were a top-two side in Serie A when he inherited them in 2018.