Dyche dismissal a risk that puts team’s need to stay up in sharp focus

Sacking is no shock given manager’s dour football but successor has a perilous task. 

Could Moyes be the right fit?

His record may be bad by the standards of the club’s history but few Everton managers had such limited resources

10 Jan 2025 - The Guardian

Jonathan Wilson

It was life, but was it living? Everton have lost only four of their past 16 games in all competitions. They have kept five clean sheets in their past eight games and in the past month have frustrated Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. They’ve taken 17 points from 19 games this season, which the past decade of the Premier League would suggest, if repeated in the second half of the season, would leave them right on the edge of relegation.

Given the trend is for the relegated three to get fewer and fewer points, the sense is that, even with Wolves and Ipswich showing signs of improvement, they would probably have survived if Sean Dyche had stayed.

But on the other hand, Everton have failed to score in eight of their past 10 games, and have lost the past two, against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest. Eventually clinging on for clean sheets, relying on the absolute focus of the rearguard and on Jordan Pickford to make a couple of outstanding saves a game becomes untenable. And perhaps more than that, it becomes unwatchable. If Everton fans have become disillusioned, if eking their way to safety, goalless draw by goalless draw, has come to seem unbearably joyless, they can hardly be blamed.

Dyche lasted just under two years. Although his win percentage was higher than that of Frank Lampard, his immediate predecessor, it was worse than every other Everton manager since Howard Kendall’s third spell, in 1997-98, and the fourth-lowest in Everton’s history.

Yet his time cannot be judged too harshly given he twice kept them up, once after an eight-point deduction. His record may be bad by the standards of Everton’s history, but few Everton managers have had to work with such limited resources.

It is three weeks since the Friedkin Group completed its takeover of Everton. New owners, as Dyche had acknowledged, often look to appoint their own manager, even if the incumbent is more obviously thrilling than Dyche. In that sense the decision to dismiss him is not a surprise. It is, though, a risk as they move into their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next season.

The interest payments on the loan they have taken out to pay for that will be substantial – a decision is pending on whether they can be classed as deductions for profitability and sustainability rules purposes – and, without the riches of the Premier League, would be challenging. Everton cannot afford to be relegated.

But perhaps the thinking is that the best way to avoid relegation is to spend in January. Quite how much they have to spend is another question. Everton were docked points last season for PSR breaches in each of the past two rolling three-year periods and, although the Swiss Ramble blog on football finance suggests that they should be compliant this season, it is not by much, and he is still predicting a loss of about £46m. In addition, Everton have £451m of shareholder loans, the highest figure in the Premier League, which, at some point, although not before next season, will become part of PSR calculations. The failures of Farhad Moshiri will continue to be felt for some time, however generous the Friedkin Group may like to be.

Still, if they can find money to spend, it makes sense that it should be spent for a manager they hope to be around in the medium-to-long term, rather than someone they may have been planning to offload in the summer once survival was secured. In that sense the question is less why Dyche has been sacked now than why it didn’t happen a week ago to give the new manager the maximum possible amount of time to liaise on signings; a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth surely can’t have made a huge difference.

More specifically the timing was odd in that Dyche’s dismissal was announced about three hours before the FA Cup tie against Peterborough.

Perhaps some detail of his severance took longer to negotiate than anticipated, perhaps the Cup simply isn’t a matter of great concern to them, but the implication would be that an appointment is imminent. David Moyes has emerged as a leading candidate.

Many will be relieved, on the logic that anything will be better than the tedium of Dycheball. But the Friedkin Group does not have a great history of appointments at Roma. It inherited Paulo Fonseca but in the four years since he departed, has burned though José Mourinho, Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric to end up with Claudio Ranieri. Moyes certainly fits that template, as a popular and experienced former manager.

At the moment Dan Friedkin is riding an optimistic wave by dint of not being Moshiri, but the appointment will be a major test of the credibility of his group’s ownership. Moyes has a history of keeping clubs up and outperforming his budget and, while few would consider his football overly thrilling, such things are relative.ì

With a new owner and new stadium to move into, Everton’s prospects could be bright. But optimism requires them to be in the Premier League. For the future of the club, these next few months are crucial.

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Everton turn to Moyes after sacking Dyche before Cup tie

Andy Hunter

10 Jan 2025 - The Guardian

Everton’s new owners are expected to offer David Moyes the chance to return to Goodison Park after sacking Sean Dyche hours before the FA Cup tie against Peterborough United. Moyes, who left Everton for Manchester United in 2013, has been out of work since leaving West Ham at the end of last season.

The Scot’s availability, vast experience of the Premier League and of Everton make him an attractive proposition for The Friedkin Group (TFG) as it considers candidates who could secure the club’s top-flight status this season. Its first managerial appointment as Everton owners could happen quickly. Talks with Moyes will advance today.

José Mourinho, whom TFG sacked at Roma 12 months ago and is now in charge at Fenerbahce, is not under consideration. Dyche’s departure was announced just over three hours before the FA Cup third-round game at Goodison. The Under-18s coach, Leighton Baines, and the club captain, Séamus Coleman, were asked to take over at short notice.

Dyche’s backroom team of Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer have all left the club. The 53-year-old is understood to have been in negotiations over a payoff since Monday, having indicated to TFG that he felt he had taken Everton as far as he could.

Everton’s owners were reluctant to make a change so early in the tenure, having stressed the importance of stability upon completion of the takeover on 19 December. TFG had spoken to Dyche about supporting him in the January transfer window, albeit within the restrictions of the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), but felt his attitude had changed after defeats by Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth. Talks soon diverted to severance terms.

Dyche was seeking a compensation package to cover the final six months of his Everton contract plus bonuses.

TFG refused on the basis that his attitude to the job was tantamount to him resigning, a stance that Dyche rejected. He was sacked as soon as compensation terms were agreed. TFG is determined not to be viewed as a soft touch.

The now former Everton manager won only one of his final 11 Premier League matches in charge – and his team failed to score in eight of those games – and there were tensions over transfers with the club’s director of football, Kevin Thelwell. But it was Dyche’s admission that he could do no more with the current squad that prompted TFG to act.

There was interest in Graham Potter earlier this week but that did not develop to the stage of offering the new West Ham manager a contract. A club statement released at 4.32pm read: “Everton Football Club can confirm that Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as senior men’s first team manager with immediate effect. Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer have also left the club.

“The process to appoint a new manager is under way and an update will be provided in due course. Under-18s head coach Leighton Baines and club captain Séamus Coleman will take charge of first team affairs on an interim basis.”

Dyche replaced Frank Lampard as the Everton manager in January 2023. He twice succeeded in preserving the club’s Premier League status despite major financial constraints and suffering two points deductions last season for previous breaches of PSR. But poor results, allied to a dismal style of play, drained support for the 53-year-old among supporters.

The former Burnley manager admitted on Tuesday that TFG should be planning his succession. He was in talks over a payoff at the time. Dyche has delivered only three league wins in this campaign and, despite picking up draws against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City over the festive period, Everton are fifth from bottom of the table and only one point above the relegation zone.