On the one hand, January feels a long way off. Between now and New Year’s Day, Everton will play 10 matches – most in a stacked December of eight games – including ties with Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United.

There is also the matter of the Carabao Cup quarter final with Fulham, a home clash that offers genuine potential to a route to Wembley via a semi-final against Championship or League One opposition.

But while a lot will happen over those 900+ minutes on the pitch, 2024 is now less than two months away and attention within the club is already turning to the new year and all that it brings. Here are some of the key issues at play for the Blues.

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The Doucoure double boost

One of the major issues set to impact Everton in January was the Africa Cup of Nations. At the beginning of this season it was a tournament that had the potential to remove a significant number of central midfield options from Sean Dyche’s grasp. Alex Iwobi’s Nigeria side, Abdoulaye Doucoure’s Mali and Idrissa Gueye’s Senegal have all qualified for the tournament, which will run from mid-January to mid-February and cover a period in which Everton face four Premier League matches.

A few months on, this looks like less of a problem. Against Dyche’s preference, Iwobi was sold to Fulham on the final day of the transfer window and Everton have begun life without the midfielder. Dyche has now received a welcome boost by virtue of Doucoure’s public confirmation of what the ECHO reported last month – that he is unlikely to head out to Ivory Coast for the tournament. One of the most important players in Dyche’s approach, Doucoure’s preference to stay with his club means only Gueye is now expected to depart. The consequences of this are significant – it means that, barring injury, Dyche will still have enough players to fill his favoured three man midfield set up and so will not need to find a new way of playing during that period.

Doucoure’s words were a second boost provided by the 30-year-old in a week after he signed a new deal with Everton that will keep him with the club until the summer of 2025. Doucoure only signed a new deal in the spring and that extension was due to expire next summer. Finding a replacement who can bring to this side what Doucoure does would have been fraught and expensive – protecting his future removes a potential headache for the coming months.

Expiring contracts – a blessing and a curse

Doucoure is not the only first team player to have agreed new terms since the beginning of the campaign with Jarrad Branthwaite having also signed an updated contract. The 21-year-old has emerged as a central figure in Dyche’s set-up and while he was already tied down for the coming seasons, an improved deal would likely have given him proof of how dearly Everton value him as he attracts attention from elsewhere.

Dyche recently stated, as is his standard answer on the topic, that conversations over contracts and players’ futures are an ongoing process with all the various parties involved. Those running the talks from an Everton perspective are set for a busy few weeks as a big portion of the senior squad will be entering the final six months of their respective deals after Christmas.

Club captain Seamus Coleman, Dele, Andre Gomes, Gueye, Ashley Young and Andy Lonergan are all on deals that will end in the summer of 2024. While several of those players are not first-team regulars, and some behind the scenes may welcome opportunities to further reduce Everton’s wage bill, the club already has a threadbare squad and so careful consideration will need to be paid to plans for the future.

Calvert-Lewin and giving Thelwell a chance to forward plan

Of those players on expiring deals, only Gueye and Young have featured prominently this season – though the likes of Coleman, Dele and Gomes have all been hit with injury. But two further players will also be due to leave Finch Farm – loanees Jack Harrison and Arnaut Danjuma. With that in mind, plans for Everton’s summer will already be in motion with an eye to the size and make-up of the squad likely to have played a factor in the decision to move on Doucoure and secure his presence into 2025.

The hope for director of football Kevin Thelwell will be that, for the first time – at the third time of asking – he can plan for a summer well in advance of it beginning. That Everton have taken the relegation fight to the final week of the past two seasons has been problematic for a number of reasons – including the difficulty in preparing for a summer window with no idea which league the club will be heading into. Everton’s chief task is survival but the hope is that this can be achieved at a much earlier stage so Thelwell is focusing on implementing his vision for a squad overhaul rather than splitting his attention with a Championship-facing contingency plan.

Central to any vision of an improved future will be Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He has now started seven consecutive games and there are few players who can do what he can in the Premier League. His discovery of fitness and form, though still in its early stages, means addressing his contract situation is also important. The stronger the striker grows the more he will be coveted and, with his contract due to end in the summer of 2025, Everton will want to avoid a situation where one of the club’s best players is approaching the final 12 months of his deal in the second half of next season.

The big decisions being made behind-closed-doors

For all the importance of forward planning, the coming weeks will have a major influence on what is possible for Everton and where the club’s ambitions lie. Off-the-pitch matters will define Everton’s short and long term future as an independent commission rules on whether Everton have breached a Premier League financial rule. The club denies wrongdoing and defended its position in a hearing that concluded late last month.

A decision is due in the coming weeks along with, if Everton is deemed to have committed a breach, any potential sanction. This could include a fine, points deduction or transfer ban – all of which would be significant. The spectre of a transfer ban makes getting ahead of the contract situation all the more crucial – tying down players deemed to have a future, such as Doucoure, offers some protection for a small squad that may be hindered in its plans to strengthen.

Separate to that is the ongoing scrutiny of 777 Partners’ takeover bid for Everton. The Premier League, Financial Conduct Authority and the Football Association – which has a regulatory responsibility in relation to the women’s game – are all rifling through the US firm’s proposals. What happens, and when, remains to be seen, but it adds another element of uncertainty around the club at a key tim