Why Everton won’t consider sacking Sean Dyche despite relegation fight
Everton would be safe were it not for points deductions and insiders believe there is no better manager to steer them out of trouble
It is almost two years to the day that Sean Dyche was fired in the middle of trying to extricate Burnley from the Premier League’s relegation battle.
If it left deep scars, Dyche certainly doesn’t show it. The Everton manager remains as phlegmatic as ever in this, the seventh Premier League relegation battle he’s been involved in.
Although he is under pressure to find results in one of the biggest weeks in the club’s recent history – Sunday’s visit of Nottingham Forest is followed by a Goodison Park Merseyside derby before another home game with Brentford – there appears no prospect of the club changing managers despite a run of just one win in 15 games.
As scrappy as the football has been, Everton had been reasonably competitive until Monday’s mauling by Chelsea, when all of the doubts about recent performances manifested in one of the most desperate performances in recent memory.
“Miles off it,” was how Dyche described it. “The most embarrassed he had felt on a football pitch” was James Tarkowski’s succinct summary. In reality it was probably worse: a combination of Everton’s famed work-rate dropping to an unacceptable level and a tactical plan that was ruthlessly exposed.
There has been an awful lot of work to do this week to correct the problems and Dyche needs to make changes. An over-reliance on players who aren’t having an impact – Ashley Young’s form has tailed off – is as curious as it is potentially damaging.
The other thing that counts against the Everton manager is that there is no shortage of quality in his squad. On Monday he had two players in the most recent England squad among his five defensive players and the much-hyped Belgium international Amadou Onana in midfield.
There is little in reserve and holes up front and in key areas but this is a better team than the one he inherited, a squad that prompted Dyche to tell an Everton staffer when he was appointed that “I have kept worse in the Premier League”.
Expectations in these upcoming key games should not be depressed just because the club is. It now looks like a three team mini-league that Everton need to finish in the top two of. With Luton, Forest, Sheffield United and Burnley to play, they really should get the results they need.
But for all Dyche has questions to answer, inside Goodison Park there is no appetite for managerial change. It is debatable whether the club could even shake things up if they wanted to – both a lack of finance to pay off long-term contracts and the paralysis of the long-awaited 777 Partners takeover mean major decisions are being mothballed – but it isn’t even on the agenda.
For a start, Everton remain outside of the relegation zone despite the bad form. And there is also the question of who would be the best man for this sort of salvage job. Given his experience and outlook, you wouldn’t look much further than the man currently in the dugout.
An Everton insider previously told i that one of Dyche’s biggest qualities was his calmness, which had been vital during last season’s ultimately successful relegation fight.
“I can’t imagine many managers would have been able to absorb all of the things that he has had to contend with since he came to Everton and still rolled up their sleeves and got on with it,” they said.
This year the battle is different. There remains a searing sense of injustice at the punishment meted out to the club the two breaches of financial fair play.
It has been pointed out to i that Dyche would have steered Everton out of trouble by now without the combined points deductions that the club have been given this season. That has had an undoubted impact on the players and especially the fans, who are being called to once again go to the well and offer the support that has helped keep the club in the Premier League in previous seasons.
They will do that. Fan group the 1878s are planning further positive shows of support in the forthcoming fixtures, but understandably, there is a sense of crushing deja vu about the predicament.
Relegation would be a nightmare scenario, exacerbating the club’s perilous financial position. It is essential the club remain in the Premier League but where do they go from there?
Believe it or not, there is actually a school of thought that Everton’s future – if they can negotiate the especially turbulent waters of the 777 takeover and the perilous relegation fight – can be bright.
The new stadium continues apace while the work done by Kevin Thelwell to restructure the football department is significant. They are better prepared to buy better players when the budgetary concerns are eased. They also have a crop of valuable stars, wanted by some of the biggest clubs in Europe, that can allow them to player trade this summer.
Plans for the transfer window are taking shape, despite the uncertainty. A younger, more dynamic squad is what Dyche craves, though budgetary constraints have made fulfilling that vision difficult.
For now he must work with what he has. For all that a damaging week has raised familiar dread at Goodison Park, their on-field fate remains in their own hands. They simply cannot afford to let it slip.
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