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Marco Silva is earnest. Intense even.

He listens to the wording of questions carefully and answers methodically.

This is a very focused football coach.

But then he smiles. And it is incandescent.

Everton's Portuguese manager has one of those smiles which transforms his face and illuminates his features.

But it's a countenance we haven't often seen this season - even after increasingly impressive back to back victories and a 100 per cent success rate from his summer signings (those that we've seen).

It's serious business managing Everton Football Club.

"Am I enjoying it?" says Silva. "Of course. I am really happy. Believe me!

"Normally I can adapt fast and easy to the position wherever I am. But I am really happy, here. I know what I want, I know what the club wants but I don't like to lose my focus if we win 3-0 or if the result wasn't the best.

(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

"It's not easy to see big differences between the two. It's my way and the players know that as well."

Silva has been following Kipling's famous advice to the letter, treating those two impostors just the same.

But he admits that he does reveal a different side of himself to his players. Occasionally.

"Inside Finch Farm I am a little bit different with them," he smiled.

"In some moments they can see a little bit more from the coach.

"I am happier with them sometimes, but I am really enjoying it here at the club.

"We have to create and to build our club, to achieve something important."

"For me it is a fantastic challenge, not just for me and for my technical staff, but for us as a club.

"It's a different step for our club, what we want to do not just now but for our future. It's thinking big, but we have to go step by step. We have to create and to build our club, to achieve something important."

Silva has been in charge for just 139 days, 28 days fewer than his predecessor served, but has already taken significant steps towards achieving that aim.

After the ill-judged carnage of Ronald Koeman's final transfer window - a strategy-free buying spree which resembled children on a trolley dash around Toys R Us - Silva can already look smugly on four signings who have all been widely declared successful.

(Image: Tony McArdle - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images)

Richarlison, Bernard, Kurt Zouma and Lucas Digne may not have come cheap - but they have all hit the ground running, which after the experiences with some of the previous summer's signings could allow Silva a smile of satisfaction.

And, of course, there is still Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes to come.

"I agree with the word gamble, but I don't look to the market like a gamble," explained Silva.

"I was clear with Marcel (Brands), with our board, with our owners and with our chairman, that to sign somebody we have to be clear that they are coming here to improve us - and for the positions that we really need.

"We cannot sign 11 players. It is not our way and it doesn't make sense in my opinion to come in and try and change everything in one month or two months. We have to go step by step.

"I analysed our squad and I knew who our targets were and what we needed for what positions. I was clear."

"When you come in and analyse a squad, you already have one idea - and I had that idea when I did my homework. But after you come in everything is different when you start to work with those players, when you start to see them in competition with each other.

"You see how they react when they didn't achieve a good performance, how they react when they perform well. Just training and playing with them and being in charge of them means you can get to know your players better.

"I analysed our squad and I knew who our targets were and what we needed for what positions. I was clear.

"Since the first day I came here, Lucas Digne was my first choice for that position; Richarlison I don't need to say any more about, I took him to my previous club as well and it was amazing to achieve a player like him because we spent big money on him.

(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)

"Kurt Zouma I know very well and he is a player we had in our mind as a possible solution on loan. And Bernard, everyone knows him of course. I know his coach well, he is a Portuguese coach and he is one player I had in my mind as well.

"The other two? Of course one is a Portuguese player (Andre Gomes) who I know very well and it was a matter of getting him into a good physical condition. He is strong in his mind as well and I am sure he will help our squad like we need. We are happy with our midfielders of course but he can give different things for us.

"And Mina? We have to see how he can adapt to this different type of football but for sure he will play when he is in a good physical condition and when he has adapted to this type of football because it is different.

"But at the end this is what you want.

"When we sign five or six players, maybe one or two need more time to adapt, but the others have to come in and show what we expect, and believe me we expect good things.

Some people had doubts because of Bernard's size

"Of course we are happy with them, but believe me Lucas can improve even more, Zouma for sure, Bernard is just starting now and Richarlison is a young boy. The other two will show good things as well."

Richarlison's impact immediately silenced the doubters who raised eyebrows at the size of the mark up Watford banked on a player who had cost them £11m just 12 months earlier.

But it was Richarlison's compatriot, Bernard, who has got the Goodison fans purring already.

it took time to build up the Brazilian's match fitness after a long spell on the sidelines following the end of his deal at Shakhtar Donetsk - but after a assist with almost his first touch against Fulham, then a wonderfully promising cameo in the Carabao Cup against Southampton, he showed the full range of his goal-creating talents in a superlative full Premier League debut at Leicester.

Silva was not surprised.

"He is a different profile as a player to what we have," he explained.

"Some people had doubts because of his size (he is 1.64m - or five feet four in his stockinged feet).

"He is not the type of profile of some players who come to the Premier League but he is a smart player and he is different to what we have on the flanks, different to Richarlison, to Theo (Walcott) to (Ademola) Lookman. We have different solutions which is important to us.

"He can play in the three positions and behind the striker as well and he is a good solution."

So does Silva have any further solutions for the January transfer window?

"In the next market if we have the chance to improve again, we are open to that"

Everton are still light in the central striking position and the midfield blend could still warrant improvement.

Silva added: "We are always working and aware of everything.

"It is most important for me as a coach to keep focused on our squad. To start enjoying, because that is the right word, enjoying working with all of them. Because up to now, unfortunately because of injuries, I haven't had this chance to work with and enjoy all of my players working hard - to see the competition between all of them.

"Now I am starting to see this and that is important for me.

"It is important for me to repeat one, two or three times the same starting XI, where you can get through some important connections between the players. Then after that we have a long time to talk about January and the next market as well.

"Of course you are always aware, you are always analysing. Of course I won't tell you, but if you asked me what is my idea for the next three months or the next 10 months, I know more or less. But now is not the time to talk about that situation.

"The most important thing for us is to close our squad, produce strong work behind the scenes and improve what we have with our players.

"In the next market, if we have the chance or the possibility to improve again, we are open to that and we will be clear again in our targets because that is my way to work."

There is one more flash of that beaming smile - then it is off to work some more.

More focus, more intensity and more time thinking big, creating and building "our club" and trying to achieve something important.