I was at Finch Farm on day it started to feel like Everton's luck might finally be about to improve

“One day there’ll be some way of me telling people the truth of what goes on,” Sean Dyche said. The Blues boss has often spoken of the books he could write on his Everton career to date. This week he has been provided with another chapter.

Across 21 months on Merseyside, Dyche is no stranger to a press conference in which football takes a backseat. Following the developments of this week, this was always set to be another such occasion.

What did change was the tenor of the conversation that started at 1.45pm when, as usual, Sky Sports put the first question to him.

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For so much of his tenure Dyche has been the spokesperson for a club buffeted by crisis. This time, the exit route found by Everton owner Farhad Moshiri appears to be a genuine path to progress. The Friedkin Group’s return for the club has sparked hope that an institution that has been navigating extreme turbulence for too long may finally be on the cusp of stability.

Dyche has been through this all before and knows not to get carried away. He made that clear at Finch Farm ahead of the match with Crystal Palace. He even got so far as sitting down at the training ground with representatives of 777 Partners, who fronted just one of the several bids to have fallen apart over the past two years.

But there was a sense in the media room, at the complex and around the club that things may finally be about to get better. Finch Farm was a happy place on Thursday afternoon. Long-serving and immensely popular former kitman Jimmy Martin was back at his old workplace to promote his upcoming walk for the charity Heartbeat and he was a focal point for joy in the rooms around the reception. Jordan Pickford, Seamus Coleman and Michael Keane were among those who emerged in the canteen to deliver their messages of support for a dressing room favourite, the laughs that flowed from their chats adding to the feel-good factor in the building.

The takeover news should make Dyche’s life easier, in the short term at least. It removes uncertainty around one major part of the Everton revival project and means it is one less issue for him to be probed on at a time when his focus is needed on results. It can be easy to forget the dealings of Moshiri impact everyone, including him.

I remember being on the train from Dublin to Sligo in July when the Friedkin Group’s original takeover effort collapsed. The mood sunk on carriages filled with Blues who were starting to believe this summer could hold real promise of progress.

The collapse of what had felt like the best pathway for Everton’s future hung over the 3-3 draw with Sligo Rovers that followed that evening. It was a day scarred by another breakdown in the boardroom talks, the never-injured James Tarkowski had flown home the night before with a fitness scare and a late flurry from Youssef Chermiti had been needed to save Everton’s blushes. The journey back that night felt very long.

I was the only journalist to speak to Dyche on that pivotal day and it felt clear that a good week in the early stages of pre-season had been marred by an off-the-pitch gut punch that would fuel more uncertainty.

In the months that have followed many associated with the club have longed for the feeling before 11am on that Friday morning when stability felt within grasp. The Friedkin Group has now revived that hope and Finch Farm feels a better place for it.

In the time between a deal falling apart and being resurrected Everton have had a terrible start to the Premier League season, however, and that is an issue that remains the immediate priority for everyone working behind the gates on Finch Lane.

But on that front, too, things may be about to get better. Positive headlines, on and off the pitch - this has rarely been the case over recent troubled years yet here we are.

The big news of Thursday, undoubtedly, was the return of Jarrad Branthwaite. I watched at Southport on Sunday as he returned to competitive football with a dominant display following his summer groin operation. That 90 minutes may have been the biggest of Everton’s season to date.

Dyche is often tentative when overseeing the return of players from injury but said he believed the rehabilitation programme of the 22-year-old, who stopped to sign autographs as he left the training ground on Thursday, has been working through means he is in contention for a return already.

That news comes as a major boost for a side that is yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this season. The aerial dominance and pace of the player who last season emerged as one of European football’s brightest prospects has been missed. His return could mark a turning point on the pitch just as Everton get one off it. Maybe things are about to get better?