Sean Dyche insists he’s doing his utmost to ensure Evertonians enjoy their club’s historic final season at Goodison Park. But the Blues boss believes he has a difficult job with what he claims have been rising expectations despite a reduction in budget.
Everton host Wolverhampton Wanderers this evening knowing that the visitors, who are in the relegation zone, could leapfrog them in the table with a victory.
The Blues have only won one Premier League home game so far this term in their final campaign at the first purpose-built football ground in the country, a venue that has staged more English top flight matches than any other. When asked whether this season is harder, Dyche said: “It’s different kind of version of it. You know, last season was difficult with the points coming down, then we had a second lot of points come down.
The first season was difficult because the team weren’t operating and struggling to find anything when we had to stay up. This season is difficult because the expectations gone that way [way up], and the finances gone that way [way down], so that’s always difficult to manage when those two are not aligned.
“Then you’ve got to win games. We got off to a bad start, but there are so many difficulties, it’s hard to measure which one is in which order.
“The biggest one was obviously staying in the division in the first season, that was the biggest one because that’s absolutely paramount.”
As well as dealing with expectations of the Everton fanbase, with the takeover looking to be moving towards completion, Dyche could soon be dealing with new owners in the shape of the Friedkin Group, who are on their fourth head coach this year at Roma.
In terms of outside influences, he said: “All of those things are not helpful, but there have been so many things that are not helpful.
“You feel it and it’s annoying for you, but this is the challenge. I’ve been here 23, 24 months, or whatever, and you can never get to the point where you just go ‘ah’ and take a breath.
“The next challenge comes along, the next moment comes along, the next financial, the next on the pitch, then off the pitch. The hardest challenge this year has been definitely been the finance goes this way in the summer, and the expectation went that way.
“If I could, I would be doing it and I’m trying it. All the other managers didn’t deliberately not try to be brilliant every season.
“We’re working hard, that’s all I can assure people. That’s what I said when I got here. There’ll be no lack of hard work and there still isn’t, trust me with that.”
That said then, is there a problem that Everton’s players are just not good enough? Dyche doesn’t think so.
When that suggestion is put to him, he said: “No, the answer is that whatever people think you have to try and deliver. There are no excuses from me.
“I don’t think that I have made them since I have been here. We have got the players we have got. My job is to maximise what they can deliver. That’s what I have been trying to do since I walked in the building.
“We have got less money, less wages, less playing staff – but we have got to deliver on what the expectation is. That’s life here.
“I knew it before I got here but it is more intense than I thought. It has been that way since the moment I walked in. This (expectation) isn’t new to me. That’s my challenge.
“Whether you or other players think the players are good enough is absolutely irrelevant. Evertonians don’t care about that – just win, end of story. Dry your eyes. So I do. Dry your eyes, Sean. Try and win a game.
“That’s life at Everton. Forget about all the good stuff, the financial things we have managed to put in place and the new order that has given us more alignment.
