Monday, May 14, 2018: a date which should be ringed in blue at Everton.

Not because it will mark the end of a traumatic season, although that is ample enough reason. But, rather, it must signal the start of a move to unify a club fragmented by discord at present.

Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s major shareholder, has endured testing times since buying his stake two years ago, but the real difficulty lies in getting a succession of key decisions right over the coming weeks in order to give the club a chance to stride purposefully forward.

Everton’s CEO Robert Elstone is leaving for rugby league and a role with Super League and a replacement needs to be identified. Decisions need to be made over the future