As the public face of Destination Kirkby he has made a number of sworn enemies among those Blues opposed to the move, and such is the way of modern football, he also takes the blame for pretty much anything that goes wrong at the club, no matter how big or how small.

On the other hand there are more than a few Evertonians who see someone who has made the best of a job that the much-heralded Trevor Birch famously couldn’t handle for more than 10 minutes.

He also leaves a club that, for the most part, seems more stable than it has been for years, is challenging at the right end of the table and looks like its about to break its transfer record for the third successive season – should the Joao Moutinho saga ever end, that is.

Whatever Wyness’s reasons for leaving though, be it because of the ground move or simply because he has an offer he fancies elsewhere, the timing seems somewhat inopportune from Everton’s point of view.

Given that the departure is meant to have come as something of a shock to the board, we can only assume that Wyness hasn’t been doing a handover for the last fortnight or so. We can only guess then at how easy it will be for a stand-in or successor to pick up the reins immediately and, hopefully, complete some of the transfer deals that are desperately needed in order to make sure the Blues have anything like a competitive squad when the season kicks off in just over a fortnight.

Because it’s going to be a strange atmosphere at Goodison for that friendly against PSV Eindhoven if there are no new faces and the squad is still peppered with kids.