“All my family have given me good support. They are all Evertonians themselves and while they were disappointed with the result, they were still delighted that we got there. I’m proud we got there but the disappointment will always be there.

“That’s the kind of attitude we need. We don’t want to be satisfied with getting to a day like that. We want to win things, we want to improve all the time and push on; if we can have a little bit of a better season this time around, it would be great, wouldn’t it?”

It certainly would. The sceptics, however, will tell you that Everton’s outstanding run of form over the last three years is due to come to an end and that they will not be repeating their achievement of back-to-back fifth place finishes.

Expect to hear pundits saying they have ‘overachieved’ frequently, a nonsense of a term if ever there was one – how is it possible to overachieve? Haven’t Everton finished so high up the table because they have got married talent with consistency?

“We don’t see why we can’t do it again,” Osman said. “People seem to continually tells us that we are overachieving and we won’t be able to do it again. But they’ve been saying that about us for a few seasons, haven’t they?

“It doesn’t knock the belief we have in ourselves. We aren’t going to sit here and start saying we’ll finish in this position or that, as it’s too early; we’ll just continue going from week to week and month to month, as we always have done.

“Does it rankle that they keep saying such things? It’s not something I’m too bothered about, really. If they continue to say we overachieve but we continue to finish fifth, that won’t bother me in the slightest.”

Once he is back up and running, Osman will no doubt have an important part to play for Moyes through the coming months, not least because he is one of the senior members of a squad that he believes just needs a couple of little tweaks to keep them towards the top.

“The progress we have made has got to benefit us and it has got to help the gaffer out no end, as potential transfer targets can see the pedigree that we have got,” said Osman. “What we have done over the last few seasons hasn’t been a fluke.

“We have been consistent for four or five years and hopefully we’ll do that again. We’ve been to the Carling Cup semi-finals, done well in Europe and been to an FA Cup final. People looking from the outside should see this as good place to play football.”