Demarai Gray has been our player of the season so far so add him to the list of players whose careers received rejuvenation at Everton. Historically we actually have an excellent record of bringing in players for very little money who were going nowhere and turning them into vital players (think the likes of Cahill, Coleman, Baines, Stones, Pienaar, Jagielka, Lescott, Arteta, Calvert-Lewin, Digne) but you're right that more recently we've been throwing silly money at substandard cast-offs (Bolassie, Iwobi, Walcott, Tosun, Schneiderlin, arguably Gomes and Keane). That's been the difference since Moshiri took over. In the past we were spending a couple of million on these risky purchases. Lately it's been 25 million for this Crystal Palace winger, 30 million for that Arsenal bench-warmer (and 45 million for Sigurdsson for crying out loud!). We have been terribly, terribly run for the last few years, which is why that deal they pulled off last night for Deli Alli (basically a free transfer until next season and then a bunch of impractical bonuses that'll never be triggered) was so competently negotiated that I've been listening out for the four horsemen of the apocalypse all day. I can't remember the last time we made such a sensible purchase.
Lampard now has the tools (i.e the players) needed to get us clear of relegation, which is his only task for this season. Our defence is still awful, and footage from his first training session today suggests he's going for a high press (the Roberto Martinez school of "score more than you concede"), which could be risky, but we'll see how it goes. The next 3 league games are very winnable and we ought to be looking for 7 points minimum from them. Our squad is so much better than 16th in the league.
For the first time in a long time I feel some optimism as an Everton fan. Unite the supporters behind Frank (most are fully on board), get us safely in mid table by the end of March, hope for a decent cup run, and then put all focus in the summer on rebuilding the centre of defence.