and discussions with a good mate and my older brother, I have to admit to now being somewhat concerned about the ways things are going, or should be not going.
I look at the team over the past few games and I see nothing or at best, very little to inspire or excite me.
I look at the manager and the coaching staff and again, I'm not seeing inspiration.
I look at the squad and reluctantly am rapidly coming to the conclusion that with one or two exceptions, we have a squad full of journeymen footballers, not stars.
I look at Ross Barkley and wish more than anything that someone would help the lad fulfil the potential within him. He patently needs help, particularly with the psychological side of the game and what's more, the manager - as with his predecessor - needs to find the best position for Ross to play in and build the team around him.
Jags and Baines are past their best and need to/must be replaced by the start of next season.
Williams is probably our best defender, but is not the long-term answer in the centre of the defence.
Stekelenberg has done okay, but is not a genuine number one goalie.
Seamus is not the same rampaging fullback of three or four years ago, but in my opinion is worth sticking with.
Gareth Barry, sadly, is the wrong side of thirty yet still has the best football brain in the squad.
Gana Gueye is a real find, we need to keep him and keep him happy !!
Bolasie has pace, enthusiasm and a good work ethic, it's a shame he doesn't know what he's going to do so how on earth anybody else is expected to anticipate what he'll do is beyond me. And he's no goalscorer.
Deulofeu looks a very pale shadow of the raw talent who excited us immensely a couple of years ago, and his histrionics when a decision doesn't go his way are childish and all too Latinesque for my liking, we don't need him to be a prancing prima-Donna, he needs to grow up and earn his living.
Lukaku might be our (only) goal scoring threat at present, but he too is entitled to work a lot harder than he did today and has done of late. His effort today was paltry.
As for Cleverley, Mirallas, Lennon, Kone, Robles, McCarthy and much as I like him, Mo Besic, these are sadly squad players, none of them are game winners.
Everton need an almost complete makeover, starting in goal and going right through the line-up. Of those mentioned above, only Coleman, Gueye, and Barkley are really worth persevering with.
The manager needs to ditch the one-up-front mantra as it patently doesn't work and sure as anything doesn't work for Lukaku... however long he stays here...
I cannot speak about his brother as a coach, but I would honestly like to know what Ferguson brings to the coaching table... because I fail to see anything in Lukaku that suggests Ferguson is having any influence on him.
I genuinely feel that from the next four games - Manure, Watford, Arsenal and the RS - we might only be looking at two points being gained... and that would send us into the Christmas/New Year schedule even more nervous than we are now and utterly desperate.
I hate to say it, but a disastrous showing/humiliation against/by the RS could leave Koeman in almost an untenable situation.
Right now the signs are not good and the forthcoming four games, that should be mouth-watering, could be season defining. Two points from twelve would probably see us slip into the lower half of the table and - God knows I hope I'm wrong - drop into serious trouble again.
So much, too much appears to be wrong within and around the club and sooner, much rather than later, the rot has to stop.
We are a massive and storied football club, but we have no God given right to success. As in any other walk of life, you get rewards on the back of your labours... and right now, too many seem to be just going through the motions and not even attempting to earn the ridiculous rewards they enjoy.
