Who would have thought it back then?
On a dismal night at Anfield in December, fresh from a 5-2 hammering to their closest rivals, Everton sank into the relegation zone.
Marco Silva, unsurprisingly, sank further. His tenure was ended the next day as names like David Moyes and Mark Hughes were thrown into the ring.
The stage, then, was certainly not set for a three-time Champions League winner in the form of Carlo Ancelotti to arrive but here, on a chilly February afternoon when Goodison Park was a little quiet and reserved, the impact of the former Real Madrid manager could not be understated.
Everton are now in seventh-place in the Premier League and, at the time of writing, five points behind fourth-place Chelsea.
This isn't the Italian Job. This is the Improbable Job.
Farhad Moshiri, Bill Kenwright and Marcel Brands will, after landing a leader of his calibre, have been confident of pushing away from relegation danger with ease but the current vein of form means Europe is within touching distance.
He is being aided, and, at times, carried by the implosive form of Richarlison but Ancelotti's cool, learned persona has, visibly, had an impact on a squad of players whose confidence had been, at the very least, battered and bruised by a testing first-half of the season.
The remaining run of fixtures are not easy and far from it.
But nobody would have predicted this, and perhaps not least Ancelotti.
Imagining plotting a summer assault on the Europa League, back at Anfield, back in December, would have been the talk of a dreamer and that is putting it nicely.
But improbable dreams are made by improbable people and not many can boast three Champions League titles and a CV as storied as Ancelotti can.
The Improbable Job is on. And Moshiri finally, is getting bang for his buck from an Everton manager.
