Former Everton boss Roberto Martinez has been discussing his time at his old club and what he feels is needed to progress.
The fact Everton have little left but pride to play for this season is an indictment on a season which promised so much but delivered little.
The Toffees have endured a topsy turvy season with Ronald Koeman axed and eventually replaced by the hugely unpopular Sam Allardyce.
The former England boss has done the job of lifting the Toffees out of the relegation zone and into what is likely to be the highest position they can finish, eighth.
But supporters are already fed up with the style of football on display at Goodison Park and Allardyce is under pressure to keep his job beyond the summer, particularly after the now infamous survey faux pas.
Everton spent £150 million last summer but that was offset by the sale of star striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for £75million.
The big spending under Farhad Moshiri gave supporters hope of a new dawn where the club could finally challenge the Premier League elite.
That has failed to materialise, though, and Everton fans have been making their feelings clear.
Those supporters have also been criticised for having unrealistic expectations withe many pundits and rival fans pointing out that they would have to spend significantly more over a sustained period to challenge any of the big six in the Premier League.
If the Goodison Park faithful get their wish, Allardyce will be replaced in the summer.
“I’m not the type of person to look back and think I could have done it a different way,” Martinez told Monday Night Football when asked about his time at the Toffees.
“I’m looking back at the time at Everton with an incredible satisfaction and great memories.
“I always felt that we needed to win silverware in order to kick on and we were very close, the second season we were the last British team in Europe, the third season we had two semi-finals and I think you could see that the mentality of the group was getting ready for those big games.
“But it’s demanding (at Everton) I understand that probably we got the expectations high enough to believe that we should have been able to compete in cup competitions and in the league AND finish as high as we did in the first season.
“But I do feel you need to win that piece of silverware to give you that time to build the club and philosophy.”
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