Sean Dyche has saved Everton twice. Now the club has to work out whether it wants to save him – and, indeed, whether it even can.
Something needs to change. That much is clear. Three wins have been registered in half a season. Everton have failed to score in eight of the past 10 games. They did not have a shot on target against Bournemouth, having failed to do so for 81 minutes in the previous game against Nottingham Forest. By then that game was already lost.
In the meantime, Everton’s rivals have rallied. Just a fortnight ago, new owners The Friedkin Group watched a gutsy and deserved draw against Chelsea, the first game of the new era they will deliver on Merseyside. The result was the climax of an impressive streak of stubbornness as Everton’s side embodied the best attributes of the Dyche premiership to earn valuable points against Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea
Yet those results, though significant, did not move the dial. And their lustre has now diminished. Since that goalless draw against Chelsea, Crystal Palace have matched the result as part of a surge that has taken them four points clear of Everton. Ipswich Town bettered it with a heartening win and would have overtaken Everton at the weekend had it not been for a stoppage time penalty at Fulham.
The beginning of a year that holds so much promise for Everton started with Blues cheering from their living rooms at the misfortune of a newly-promoted side falling agonisingly short of victory in west London. Wolverhampton Wanderers, another of the strugglers, were humiliated at Goodison Park one month ago but that defeat helped to liberate them. A new manager soon followed. Vitor Pereira has inspired Wolves to seven points and seven goals in his three games in charge. They are upwardly mobile.
Southampton and Leicester City still look bereft of ideas and both are cautionary tales that a change in the dugout does not guarantee a change in fortunes. As woeful as Leicester have been, they are still just three points from Everton though.
The message of recent weeks has been clear. There can be no salvation in hoping there are simply three clubs worse than Everton – that the club will survive by default. Everton must be proactive if they are to prevent catastrophe – the club must act if it wants the chance to control its own destiny.
Dyche previews Everton’s Carabao Cup clash with Fulham
The beginning of a year that holds so much promise for Everton started with Blues cheering from their living rooms at the misfortune of a newly-promoted side falling agonisingly short of victory in west London. Wolverhampton Wanderers, another of the strugglers, were humiliated at Goodison Park one month ago but that defeat helped to liberate them. A new manager soon followed. Vitor Pereira has inspired Wolves to seven points and seven goals in his three games in charge. They are upwardly mobile.
Southampton and Leicester City still look bereft of ideas and both are cautionary tales that a change in the dugout does not guarantee a change in fortunes. As woeful as Leicester have been, they are still just three points from Everton though.
The message of recent weeks has been clear. There can be no salvation in hoping there are simply three clubs worse than Everton – that the club will survive by default. Everton must be proactive if they are to prevent catastrophe – the club must act if it wants the chance to control its own destiny.
What happens next is the big question. Relieving Dyche of his duties is one option, though it carries risk with it. The Blues boss has cut a frustrated figure after recent weeks and some of his comments have been as confusing as his efforts to find a breakthrough in form.
Dyche continues to rail against the circumstances and squad he inherited. He has every right to do so, having navigated remarkable hurdles to ensure Everton still represented a project former owner Farhad Moshiri was able to sell and TFG believed to be worth investigating in. Whatever happens next, should Everton come to realise a brighter future under new ownership then the significance of Dyche’s role in helping the club survive to better days will only grow in prominence. History will likely be kinder to Dyche than the present is.
The present is tough, however. Results have been poor, the past two displays have been stale and both were followed by Dyche suggesting his players had not started as he wished them to. Off the pitch, he has not helped himself with claims such as those made to the ECHO on Saturday, when he again suggested there was a false belief Everton would improve because “it is the last season in the Old Lady”. Such comments represent a failure to identify with the hopes of loyal supporters who know more than any how tough recent times have been and are fully justified in wanting more from the final season at Goodison than watching the supporters of Brighton and Hove Albion, Bournemouth, Southampton and Brentford celebrate in the away end.
There is no escape from the reality that his side is struggling right now and it is unclear how he can change that, though he must if he and Everton are to have a chance of moving forward together. He chafes at the idea of bringing in outside coaching help. Unlike at the start of the season, he cannot point to injuries. Unlike for the 23 of his near 24 months in charge, he cannot point to instability above him. This is a side lacking in ideas and inspiration and, should he be given the chance, he needs to change that and for his ideas to extend beyond those employed on the south coast. No-one expected the introduction of Harrison Armstrong and Nathan Patterson but turning to a 17-year-old with huge promise but little experience to galvanise the attack from the middle and opting to use attack-minded Patterson to cover for 39-year-old Ashley Young moving to the wing had the hallmarks of a Hail Mary – even more so with Jack Harrison, low on confidence but high on experience and who has succeeded in both attacking midfield and on the right wing under Dyche – remaining in his tracksuit as an unused substitute.
Dyche inherited a mess and is not shy at pointing that out, as he did again after the final whistle at the Vitality Stadium. But he must acknowledge his own responsibility in the continued struggles going forward having been at the club as long as he has. It was not all bad when he arrived at Goodison Park, either. Jordan Pickford was present at Finch Farm and for all that Everton’s defensive record has been impressive across recent months, it has required England’s number one to sustain incredible form to protect it. Clean sheets against West Ham United, Brentford, Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle United were only possible because of his individual brilliance.
Dyche was immediately handed the initial backing of the Friedkins upon their arrival on Merseyside. There is little doubt the preference would be to keep him in post until the end of the season. That is a perfectly reasonable approach for many reasons.
Should the panic inspired by the current situation lead to a change then the Friedkins would have two options. They would either need a caretaker, a temporary firefighter to lead the team to safety, or fast-track the appointment of someone they want to oversee the Everton of the future. If it is the former then Dyche could argue there is none better for this situation than him. It might not be pretty but he has done it twice already and is well-versed in the circumstances of the club.
For all that Everton have the opportunity to change personality and culture in the summer, right now only the name above the door to Goodison and on the cheques written on behalf of the club have changed – everything else, as Dyche accurately said after Bournemouth – is the same, including his limited squad. While the final season at Goodison may finish as it began, with displays and results that need to be tolerated rather than enjoyed, Dyche has a history of delivering ‘enough’ and even though his team has struggled to score over the past month, and been reliant on Pickford, it would be harsh in the extreme not to give Dyche credit for the resilience, solidity and fight that was on show before Everton faltered either side of the new year.
Yet his future is in doubt because, despite that, Everton still face immediate peril. That danger could shield him. If a caretaker is not deemed appropriate then the alternative is the installation of a manager the Friedkins identify as being the person they wish to lead the Everton project they want to begin in the summer, when the club has a new home, new financial freedom and an opportunity to transform the playing squad. That challenge is a completely different one to the heat of an immediate relegation battle with the current squad though, and the danger would be that, if the manager for the future gets off to a bad start, the project could end before it has begun.
There are other reasons to back Dyche in the short term. The full extent of Everton’s position in relation to Profit and Sustainability Regulations for the year the club is currently in, 2024/25 is unclear. The club is expecting to come through the 23/24 PSR checks, currently underway, unscathed after the sales of Ben Godfrey and Lewis Dobbin in June, and there is no current fear of a breach this year either – Dyche himself repeatedly stating that over recent weeks. Yet he has also been clear that, while Everton now have the money to fund significant business, PSR is likely to constrain the club this month with June 30, the end of the football financial year, expected to be the watershed moment from which Everton can spend to transform their squad.
If PSR is limiting efforts to boost a flagging squad then it also offers a hurdle to a change in the dugout. Not only would compensation to Dyche and his staff impact the figures, any money needed to smooth the way for a deal with a manager currently in work would also come under scrutiny. It may be that the accounts suggest what wriggle room is available to Everton can fund either a managerial change or a new signing, but not both.
If it is to be the latter then that provides another source of intrigue. After Bournemouth, Dyche again questioned the belief Everton were set for a promising season that he thinks permeated expectations at the start of the season. It is not clear who Dyche attributes those hopes to – most supporters appeared aware this campaign would contain challenges but expectation rarely surpassed this being a year of stability in which a mid-table finish would prevent the need for anxiety come the spring.
Dyche had some positive responsibility for that having led Everton to a points tally that would have achieved a 12th place finish last season without the points deductions. The hopes for this season were higher because of how well he did last year. In addition, while the summer did not lead to a change in transfer policy, the signings of the likes of Iliman Ndiaye, Jesper Lindstrom and Armando Broja bolstered his attacking options – meaning any hope this Everton side would be more potent going forward was understandable. Of the outgoings, Amadou Onana’s departure represented a significant loss of talent but he was not central to Dyche’s approach, as shown by his absence from the starting XI during the survival-clinching run in April.
Should Dyche be given a new signing to help turn things around, the focus will turn to director of football Kevin Thelwell and what a figure hampered by extreme financial problems during his time at the club so far can now achieve. Key to helping Dyche would be giving him additions the manager believes can make an immediate impact.
Thelwell has helped to streamline the current squad and create the foundation of a young, promising core that could be built upon in the summer. But Dyche heaped caution on the summer signings and made clear their lack of Premier League experience could hamper their immediate impact. This has led to difficult scenarios already, such as the lack of opportunity handed to Jake O’Brien, the centre back signed from Lyon but who Dyche chose not to select even when, at Leicester City, Jarrad Branthwaite was out and both starting centre backs Michael Keane and James Tarkowski were playing despite having fitness issues. There has been similar difficulty in the integration of Ndiaye, who has shown promise but has spent much of this season playing out wide and being called upon to strengthen his defensive work when his track record suggested he could play a pivotal role linking midfield and attack in the middle of the pitch. Should TFG sanction a move in the transfer market and not the managerial one, then Thelwell and Dyche must be aligned on their vision for how to immediately improve the squad.
Whatever happens, change in some form, is becoming increasingly necessary. Every direction presents a risk but perhaps none greater than the risk posed by doing nothing at all. This is the situation TFG desperately hoped to avoid but now finds itself in.
