An utterly chaotic transfer window deadline day ended on Tuesday night in farce when the Toffees failed to land their key forward target and, after humiliatingly scrambling unsuccessfully for alternatives, were left with just one first-choice striker and an even more depleted squad than they had at the start of the window.
Tuesday's deadline day chaos though was quite possibly the most embarrassing and depressing example of a recurrent theme over so many past years in which Everton have made a mess of its transfer policy, particularly on deadline day.
After seeing final day forward target Florin Balagan decide at the eleventh hour (literally) to walk away from his contract, David Moyes was left with only one striker in Thierno Barry following Beto's departure, a player who has struggled to score goals consistently and in fact scored less than Beto.
Despite finally managing to re-sign Jack Grealish and just in time add Ainsley Maitland-Niles (a right-back of sorts at last!), the club have sold both the two reserve full-backs and one of his midfielders, meaning David Moyes has even fewer players to call on than he had last season. You couldn't make this sort of thing up.
New Chief Executive Angus Kinnear had said that the end of last season had been disappointing with the Blues failing to qualify for Europe. So, supporters waited for the finances to be made available for David Moyes to improve his side for the upcoming campaign.
It all started promisingly enough with an early move for Middlesborough's Hayden Hackney being completed a a relative short time for a talented young player who several other clubs had been interested in.
Then the Toffees succeeded in negotiating winger Tyrique George's transfer fee down and made his loan move from Chelsea permanent.
So far so good, although the George deal should perhaps have been a warning that spending this summer likely to be far less than many fans hoped. The further signing of Christian Norgaard underlined the issue.
Everyone could see that despite these initial and solid enough moves, the overwhelming priority was to bring in a specialist right-back at last and add more options and depth up front. The club have had years to sort these problems out and again it was identified as a must-do for the summer.
But once more this target and then that one came and went, especially full-backs, with Everton linked to a succession of players none of whom were signed.
Meanwhile, there was constant background talk about the future of Iliman Ndiaye who had rejected a new contract and had mentioned his desire to play Champions League football.
Ndiaye was under contract until 2030 putting Everton in pole position to dictate terms over the player's future and any possible transfer fee. Whenever this question was raised the response was that Ndiaye was going nowhere. He would of course be sold to Manchester City late on deadline day for a cut-price fee.
With days left in the window, Moyes had finally broken silence about transfers and spoke of how important it was for the Blues to strengthen the quality and depth of his squad, already one of the Premier League's smallest. He offered no explanations about why so little had been done earlier.
Then came the second game of the season at Bournemouth and as fans gathered on the South Coast, we learned that the club were discussing selling Harrison Armstrong, the only local player in the team, who had performed superbly since being forced into the first-team early after injuries to several of the midfielders.
The reaction from the travelling Evertonians was one of absolute fury with chants in favour of Armstrong during the game, leaving the club's hierachy in no doubt about the feelings of their supporters.
After cancelling all talks with Nottingham Forest over Armstrong, suddenly the club went into overdrive making a succession of moves to restructure the squad just before the transfer window shut. Why now and why hadn't any of this urgency been apparent for weeks beforehand?
We have seen this before and we all know how it eventually ended leaving the Blues season in tatters with so much uncertainly about how this team is going to be able to compete in the gruelling Premier League campaign ahead.
Frankly, European qualification is a pipe dream and I'm not even sure that Everton won't face a relegation battle once again, particularly if as usual we get a slew of injuries to first-team players.
Following such a debacle there are so many questions that need answering.
Why was so little money available earlier in the summer? What is the club's strategy, as it's hard to see one? Was there a conflict over targets and resources between Moyes, Kinnear and the owners? And where does all this leave The Freidkin Group, who appear to be more interested in financing Roma and seem focused on maximising income from the Toffees' new stadium rather than investing in the team?
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