Sport nationSean Dyche, Everton and the complicated answer to the question about his future
ECHO reporters have their say on Sean Dyche’s future at Everton after the club slipped to an embarrassing defeat to Chelsea on
Sean Dyche of Everton during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Everton FC at Stamford Bridge on April 15, 2024
Everton’s season hit a new low on Monday evening when the Toffees were humiliated 6-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
And with the club now just two points above the drop zone – albeit with eight points deducted – questions are being asked about Sean Dyche’s future with at Goodison Park.
Indeed, Chris Beesley wrote a comment piece for the ECHO on Tuesday explaining why he thinks those calling for Dyche’s head would only be making matters worse at Everton, not better. But with just one win in 15 games and a style of play that isn’t universally popular, it’s fair to say that our reporters don’t all share that view.
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Here’s what our panel of ECHO journalists have to say about Dyche’s future with the club:
Joe Thomas – Chelsea defeat and display was shambolic and it is right for questions to be asked
This is a legitimate conversation to be having and any Everton supporter who believes Sean Dyche is no longer the right person to be leading the team is more than entitled to that opinion. It is also fair to say that in other circumstances a manager who had overseen this last five months would likely have gone.
Everton have won just once in 15 league games, courtesy of a goalkeeping howler. They have just been beaten so comprehensively that reflection would typically follow whatever context that Chelsea performance sat within. And the problems on the pitch have been getting worse, not better. What started off as a run of games in which Everton were unlucky not to get more from spirited performances against higher-placed sides, often while dealing with injuries, fatigue and dodgy decisions, has grown into something more troubling. The late goals that cost valuable points against West Ham and Brighton, the reckless defending that led to two penalties being given at Old Trafford and the holes that have emerged as Newcastle threatened to take the game away from Everton, and Chelsea then did, are all indicative of a regime that is struggling to find answers at a key time.
For all that, I do not believe that looking for a new manager would be the right thing to do, right now. It is impossible to untangle the on-pitch problems from the off-field chaos. I think Dyche has done well in those circumstances. He kept up an Everton side that looked doomed when he arrived and despite being hamstrung in the transfer market he oversaw a side that, were it not for unprecedented points deductions, would have been all but safe by Christmas. That is an astonishing achievement – or at least it would have been. But the deductions have been problematic and fed into wider issues such as the lack of strength in depth in his squad. These stem from problems not of his making and yet he has been the one on the frontline throughout it all.
Even with that, as mentioned above, that winless streak is still a big issue. This is about survival first and foremost though, and I think Everton are more likely to survive with Dyche than without him. He brings a pragmatism the whole club needs and which could get the Blues over the line once again. I also do not think that more ‘noise’ around the players would help right now. And I do not know who would come in as the salvage guy. When there are 15 games to go there might be said for still taking a gamble. Not with six. And not when another staff payout will hinder the club’s efforts to comply with another set of profit and sustainability limits and avoid another points deduction in another season.
Chris Beesley: The survival of Everton as we know and love them is at stake so I believe sacking Dyche would be a desperate and damaging act
Michael Ball wrote in his ECHO column on Wednesday that he fears the tide is turning against Sean Dyche with Evertonians and don’t I know it!
When returning from London the previous day, having witnessed the Chelsea debacle up close, I produced an opinion piece which centred on concerns that Dyche might have “lost the dressing room.” I pointed out that when he first walked into the club, the former Burnley boss admitted himself that he’s a “Marmite manager” in that he divides opinion but regardless of what individual squad members may or may not think of his methods, given how high the stakes are for Everton’s survival, this is no time for anyone to down tools.
Nine months on from when I interviewed James Tarkowski at Stade Nyonnais as the only member of the UK media to attend the Blues’ first pre-season friendly under this manager by the shores of Lake Geneva and he told me that Dyche wanted Everton to be the fittest team in the Premier League, I looked the centre-back in the eye again when I spoke to him in the Stamford Bridge tunnel. Unlike some of his team-mates who don’t want to talk after a bad result, Tarkowski always fronts up and he said: “We’ve let the gaffer down”; “It wasn’t just tactical”; and “it’s on us just as players.”
It’s been a reoccurring theme during the Blues’ downwards spiral in fortunes under Farhad Moshiri that whoever is the incumbent of the home dugout at Goodison Park, various incarnations of this Frankenstein’s monster of a squad will unfortunately make you look clueless. Both Ronald Koeman and Marco Silva were sacked with their teams in the relegation zone after finishing seventh (Everton’s last qualification for Europe) and eighth earlier in the same calendar year while even the great Carlo Ancelotti, the most-successful coach in Champions League history, presided over an incredible slump from being second in the table on Boxing Day to finishing his only full season down in 10th place.
All of those managers had considerably more money than Dyche to spend but despite inheriting a team who were joint bottom of the Premier League when he came in at the end of last January and – make no bones about it – plummeting headfirst towards the Championship under Frank Lampard, he kept them up last season and has somehow kept their heads above water this term on a relative shoestring budget with director of football Kevin Thelwell having to structure the payments on any incoming deals and the club going through the most-traumatic period in their entire history. As Dyche said in his pre-match press conference before the Chelsea game: “We should be on 35 points and I would be getting measured differently, myself and the team and the players and the club in spite of having a tough run.”
If it wasn’t for the brace of deductions, an Everton side who had recorded their lowest ever equivalent points totals in the previous two seasons wouldn’t be in relegation danger right now – even after that horrific run. As I’ve said all along, I see all those same worrying features that Dyche’s critics point out: A record-breaking winless run in the Premier League; poor quality football, concerns over the flexibility with substitutions and tactics plus a struggle to get the best out of playing at Goodison Park but I agree with him that the viewpoint would be very different, even now after the downward trend since Christmas.
To his credit, those results he oversaw earlier in the campaign, including a hat-trick of victories in London and four consecutive wins in December would have put them on the cusp of survival already if the Premier League didn’t have it in for the Blues having recommended they get docked 17 points this term and the independent commissions settling on eight for now. Against such a distressing backdrop, as I wrote on Twitter: “To all those who have taken exception to my suggestion that after eight managers in eight years, calling for the head of another continues the toxic cycle, who do they seriously think Everton could have hired to do better in these circumstances this season and who would they turn to now?”
Nobody has yet come back to me with a viable answer. That’s not an attack on the supporters as some have suggested – I have said on numerous occasions that beleaguered Blues deserve so much better and they are the best thing about this club and their efforts over recent seasons are THE reason Everton are still in the Premier League. If that wasn’t clear in my previous piece, then I wish to make it clear now. However, I stand by my thoughts on Dyche and feel strongly about it.
The survival of Everton as we know and love them is at stake here. As someone who wants the best for the club, I take exception to what I see as the short-sighted notion that ripping up and starting again for the ninth time under the current regime is the way out of this mess as I believe that would be a desperate and damaging act.
‘This is a decision that should be based on results and progress. At the moment, Dyche is giving Everton neither.’
Matt Jones: If Everton are a Premier League club come the end of the season, I would be happy to see the club shake hands with Sean Dyche and go their separate ways.
This is dependent on certain factors, of course. Everton need to be able to afford it and someone at the football club – be it 777 Partners, Farhad Moshiri or Kevin Thelwell – will need to have the authority to make the decision.
But it feels increasingly like Dyche and Everton have ran their course.
The former Burnley boss has not been a failure by any means. There would be no ill-will here if a mutual parting of the ways was agreed. Last season he steadied the ship and steered Everton away from relegation. This term he rallied the players when the first points deduction was dished out – getting those four wins in succession looks likely to be the foundation upon which a successful survival effort is built.
Still, form in recent months cannot be ignored. This is a team in freefall. How can one win in 15 games be glossed over? Supporters are right to be terrified by that return.
They are in a rut and there’s no apparent way out. Dyche had an opportunity to reset mindsets and replenish his players during the recent three-week break in Portugal. Instead, the trip was marred by a controversial moment, the team continued to work at the same things – so said the man himself – and the performances have arguably got even worse since the return.
Of course, the playing squad is poor. The quality has been ruthlessly stripped from it and the replacements have been far from good enough. That is not on the manager, although it is his reality.
That is Everton’s reality too. Such sorry situations require creative solutions, astute man management and refreshing motivation. Since the turn of the year, Dyche has provided little of that.
Just look at the team’s last three goals after that training camp – Everton’s attacking prowess has been limited to capitalising on goalkeeping mistakes and set pieces. With the ball at their feet, the team is devoid of a plan and lack any individual inspiration – the most ‘exciting’ moment for match-going fans is when Jordan Pickford ambles to the halfway line to leather a long ball into the box. When they fall behind, they don’t find a way to win.
There is also a feeling that the further down the road Everton go with Dyche, the further Everton go down the path with a manager who plays football from a bygone era. If the Blues sign players who fit that blueprint, when the time comes to get with the times, that process will be tougher and more expensive.
If Everton were to survive in the summer, there would be paths they could go down too – again, finances and leadership permitting.
Better coaches could be available – David Moyes looks set to leave his position at West Ham – while the Blues could also seek to appoint a figure akin to Moyes when he came to the club in 2001. Someone young and refreshing, bristling with an enthusiasm that could reenergise a club on its knees. That figure could from the Championship or it could come from abroad. Regardless of how the current boss is doing, finding the next man is something Everton should always have an eye on.
Ultimately this is a decision that should be based on results and progress. At the moment, Dyche is giving Everton neither.
Claims that Everton cannot keep sacking managers do carry some weight. Instability has been a contributory factor to the club’s current situation.
But maybe it’s a line that we need to reverse engineer – maybe they need to stop appointing the wrong one?
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