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Arriving early at Everton’s Finch Farm training ground, Sean Dyche’s first port of call is usually the gym before his time is swallowed up by meetings, training and analysis.
You can’t blame him. If any job requires you to clear your head at 7.30am to face the challenges ahead, it is Everton manager. The demands of navigating an English sporting organization through financial crisis and fan discontent should carry its own health warning.
Even now, with light at the end of the tunnel following Friedkin’s Group’s purchase of Farhad Moshiri, a different pressure remains – that of keeping his job.
It would be natural for new owners, especially those moving to a glitzy stadium, like Everton next season, to want their own man in the hot seat. Dyche must know what a tightrope walker feels like as he prepares for his trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.
A month or so ago, when he was shamelessly banned from the family enclosure at Goodison Park, it was assumed that the ‘Ginger Mourinho’ would not even survive until the end of his contract this summer.
He was then widely praised for draws against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City before a miserable home defeat against Nottingham Forest on Sunday put him back to square one. Billionaire owner and stunt pilot Dan Friedkin has a huge decision to make in the coming weeks.
His vision of restarting Everton could be brighter with a more magical figure in the dugout. But his experience of owning Roma, with their four managers in the last 12 months, suggests that change is not always for the better.
Adding to Friedkin’s conundrum is the apparent split in opinion between the dressing room and the fan base. The Everton squad are fully behind Dyche awaiting the move to Bramley Moore-Dock and beyond. Respect is a term regularly used for their manager by influential stars such as Jordan Pickford, Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye. They are nobody’s fools having worked alongside the game’s biggest stars and consider Dyche to be hard-working, meticulous and likeable. Others like Dwight McNeil have played for the ‘gaffer’ since they were 17 years old.
Yet the fans can’t wait to get rid of Dyche despite helping Everton escape relegation on the final day and then finishing 15th last year despite an eight-point deduction for breaching the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Season ticket holders have been disillusioned by how often Everton appear negative, and the Toffees scored just 31 league goals in the whole of 2024 – 15 fewer than any other team that spent the full year in the top flight.
Shouts of ‘f***ing get out of our club’ were heard after leaving the Carabao Cup against Southampton in September from parts of the field where parents take their children. The boos have rarely been silenced on earth since.
Friedkin takes his time before making a decision. Since last January, Roma have fired Jose Mourinho, Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric without any discernible improvement. Their latest appointment, Claudio Ranieri, aged 73, is hardly one for the long term.
The issue for Dyche, who is famous for pragmatism rather than talent, is whether the Americans think a leopard can change its spots. Their vision is to have a stadium full to capacity of 52,000 on the waterfront on the banks of the Mersey experiencing the joys of ‘sexy football’, not 30 per cent possession and with clean sheets being seen as more important than goals.
Dyche thinks he can evolve, saying on Thursday: ‘We haven’t been in the position to pick players. This job is endless but no one really cares, they care nothing about, ‘Go win a game, mate’. I know the work we have done. Players here are worth 10 times what they were when we got here.’
Many in the football fraternity are sympathetic and would like to see Dyche 2.0 with a bigger budget than he has at Burnley or Everton.
Since 2021, Everton are the only club ever in the Premier League to make a profit on transfers. They have raked in a net total of £85million by selling players such as Anthony Gordon and Richarlison while every other club has spent more than they have recovered to strengthen their squads.
Former Everton favorite Pat Nevin says: ‘I’d love to see Sean get the chance. No one will know if he can adapt until he has the chance, but I doubt he would.
‘I had the same conversation with Sam Allardyce at Bolton. He said if he could outperform on a limited budget, why wouldn’t he be successful with more money and better players? In the end, owners will make decisions. It may be unfair on the managers but when has fairness mattered in football?
‘I would tell them to talk to Sean and see if there is a common vision. You don’t always have to pursue new ideas. Southampton have done that this season and they’ve been rubbish.’
Dyche’s long-time assistant Ian Woan, who was once a creative player at Nottingham Forest, does not think his boss should be dismissed as a one-trick pony.
‘He gets a lot of flack because he looks like a nightclub bouncer,’ Woan reflected in a previous interview with Mail Sport. ‘People think it must be rough but it couldn’t be further from the truth. He reads well, wants to learn and is always asking himself questions. He is a million miles away from the public persona.
‘It would be very interesting to see how he would work a system with the best players if he could hold his own with the big hitters.’
Indeed, Dyche tried to be more sophisticated at Burnley briefly in 2018, with wings and a patient build-up. After conceding 41 goals in 19 games, Dyche reinstated target man Chris Wood and defensive pairing James Tarkowski and Ben Mee to avoid relegation. He decided not to experiment with a new formula yet until the players are equipped to do it, which Friedkin can now provide.
As well as Dyche and director of football Kevin Thelwell, 12 Everton players are also either out of contract or returning to their parent clubs at the end of the season.
PSR will limit how much the Friedkin Group can spend, even though they are rich enough to do so. It might work in Dyche’s favour, as he helped Eddie Howe survive at Newcastle.
Everton want to tap into the lucrative American market but unless they buy big, it will take time and make higher profile managers like Xavi and Gareth Southgate harder to attract despite Friedkin’s bold mission statement: ‘We strive to provide extraordinary experiences.’
Although Friedkin once delighted Roma fans by personally flying in new signing Romelu Lukaku, you shouldn’t expect him in the cockpit next to Jude Bellingham at Liverpool John Lennon Airport anytime soon. Compatriot Todd Boehly’s extravagance at Chelsea may also serve as a warning to Friedkin not to try to run before he can walk.
Likewise, when Spurs chairman Daniel Levy took his club to the Tottenham Stadium in 2019 and decided Mourinho fit the upgrade, he was proven wrong.
To make his case, Dyche could even drop in his own famous anecdote when he meets Friedkin, who appeared in the Hollywood blockbuster Dunkirk.
As a young coach at Watford, Dyche got to know their honorary lifetime president Sir Elton John, who referred to his new friend with his gravelly voice as ‘My angel, my darling’.
Even with the risks of starting fresh with a new manager, Friedkin is still more likely to see the big picture and move beyond Dyche to pursue the club’s ambitions.
Despite being trophyless for 30 years, Everton’s potential is huge. There is a waiting list of 30,000 season ticket holders and the club wants top companies to fight for the naming rights of the new stadium as well as big hitters buying the 5,000 corporate hospitality packages . Crushing results will no longer be enough. Entertainment has to be part of the story too.
The fans blame Dyche because they don’t like his style but they are much harder to please and have turned against Ronald Koeman, Roberto Martinez and Marco Silva in the past, and he could at least one of them being on Everton’s wish list if they hadn’t already tried it.
Although the current squad wants Dyche to be there next season, there are fears that it won’t happen. The manager’s main hope is that Friedkin sees an advantage in a follow-up candidate.
‘The owners are aware that it is a challenging situation to build and get it right,’ said Dyche. ‘They are talking about putting the club back where it belongs but also about stability. It’s a good start.
‘There is no embarrassment in what I do. The idea of being a hero to zero comes and goes very quickly in football. I have 10 years experience in the Premier League. I know what it means.’
Friedkin has the casting vote and is in the process of choosing which way to use it. While the manager suffers the tension of waiting, at least he still has the Finch Farm gym to clear his head.
