It was not the fond farewell to Everton that Phil Jagielka had in mind. “I just texted the kitman, Tony Sage, asking him to chuck my stuff in a bin bag and I met him at the front of the entrance at Finch Farm. I didn’t want to go in. It just didn’t feel right to,” the defender says.

It is probably overstating things to suggest 12 years were reduced to the contents of a bin bag. But, as Jagielka prepares to return to Goodison Park on Saturday for the first time since his summer departure from the club he served with distinction, there is a lingering sense of regret that he never got the chance to say a proper goodbye.

Jagielka is now back at Sheffield United, the club where a career spanning almost 700 club games and 40 England caps began, and he is likely to have a lump in his throat when the two great loves of his football life collide this afternoon.

“I would like to think [I’ll get a good reception],” he says. “If I don’t I will have to abuse them all!”

Jagielka’s future was still undecided by the time Everton had kicked their final ball of last season and, as the 37-year-old looks back now, he wishes his farewell had amounted to more than a late, token substitutes’ appearance in the last home game, against Burnley, at Goodison.