It was January 4, 2020, when Alisher Usmanov broke cover and stated his desire to put some of his considerable financial weight into football again.
Usmanov had sold his stake in Arsenal two years earlier and, during the course of a rare interview with the Financial Times, the man who once brazenly declared he was 'proud to know Putin' signalled the target of his intentions: Everton.
Farhad Moshiri, his long-standing business partner, was already the controlling shareholder and Usmanov, who was born in Uzbekistan but is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow, saw a potentially exciting future.