At his press conference on Friday the Everton manager Marco Silva was asked if dropping Seamus Coleman had been the toughest decision in his short time at the club. He peddled a few generalities in an attempt to de-personalise the issue and in passing he congratulated himself on being a coach who is not “afraid to make big decisions.” Silva refused to dwell on Coleman’s recent form but he eventually said something that may have had more meaning than he intended: “I am a coach who looks to find what is the best solution for us.”

For the guts of ten years nobody at Everton would have considered Coleman to be part of the problem. His spirit and his energy and his aggression had a