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 clearing your head at 7.30am to face the challenges ahead, it’s being Everton manager. The demands of navigating an English sporting institution through financial crisis and fans’ discontent should carry its own health warning.
Even now, with light at the end of the tunnel following the Friedkin’s Group buy-out of Farhad Moshiri, a different pressure awaits — that of keeping his job.
It would be natural for new owners, particularly those moving into a glitzy stadium, as Everton are next season, to want their own man in the hotseat. Dyche must know what a tightrope-walker feels like as he prepares for Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth.
A month or so ago, when he was rudely barracked from the family enclosure at Goodison Park, it was assumed the ‘Ginger Mourinho’ wouldn’t even survive to 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 massive decision to make in the coming weeks.
Sean Dyche must know what a tightrope-walker feels like as he prepares for Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth
Daniel Friedkin has a massive decision to make in the coming weeks after the buy-out of Farhad Moshiri
His vision of an Everton reboot might be brighter with a more glamorous figure in the dugout. Yet his experience of owning Roma, with their four managers in the past 12 months, suggests change isn’t always for the better.
Adding to Friedkin’s conundrum is the stark split of opinion between dressing room and fanbase. Everton’s squad are fully behind Dyche staying for the move to Bramley Moore-Dock and beyond. Respect is a term regularly used about their manager by influential stars like Jordan Pickford, Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye. They are nobody’s fools having worked alongside the game’s biggest stars and regard Dyche as hard-working, meticulous and likeable. Others like Dwight McNeil have played for the ‘gaffer’ since they were 17.
Yet the supporters can’t wait to get rid despite Dyche helping Everton escape relegation on the final day and then finishing 15th last year despite an eight-point deduction for breaches of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
The season-ticket holders are disenchanted with how often Everton appear negative, and the Toffees scored just 31 league goals in the whole of 2024 — 15 fewer than any other side who spent the full year in the top flight.
Shouts of ‘f***ing get out of our club’ were heard after a Carabao Cup exit against Southampton in September from areas of the ground where parents take their children. The boos have rarely been silenced at the ground since.
Friedkin is taking 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, 73-year-old Claudio Ranieri, is hardly one for the long term.
The issue for Dyche, famed for pragmatism rather than flair, is whether the Americans think a leopard can change its spots. Their vision is having a stadium packed to its 52,000 capacity on the Merseyside waterfront experiencing the joys of ‘sexy football’, not 30 per cent possession and with clean sheets viewed as more important than goals.
Dyche thinks he can evolve, stating on Thursday: ‘We haven’t been in the situation to cherry-pick players. The job here is endless but nobody really cares, they are just bothered about, ‘Go and win a game, mate’. I know the work we have done. Players here are worth 10 times what they were when we got here.’
Everton’s squad are fully behind Dyche – though that is a stark comparison to fan opinion
Friedkin’s Roma have sacked three managers with little difference before bringing in Claudio Ranieri
Dyche, famed for pragmatism rather than flair, is however confident that he can evolve
Many in the football fraternity have sympathy and would like to see a Dyche 2.0 with a bigger budget than he’s had either at Burnley or Everton.
Since 2021, Everton are the only ever-present Premier League club to have made a profit on transfers. They’ve raked in a net total of £85million by selling the likes of Anthony Gordon and Richarlison while every other club has spent more than they’ve recouped to strengthen their squads.
Former Everton favourite Pat Nevin says: ‘I’d love to see Sean given the chance. Nobody will know if he can adapt until he gets the opportunity, but I suspect he would.
‘I had the same conversation with Sam Allardyce at Bolton. He said if he could overperform on a limited budget, why wouldn’t he be successful with more funds and better players? In the end, owners will make decisions. It can be unfair on the managers but when has fairness mattered in football?
‘I would tell them to speak to Sean and see if there is a shared vision. You don’t always have to follow new ideas. Southampton have done that this season and they’ve been rubbish.’
Dyche’s long-time assistant Ian Woan, once a creative player with Nottingham Forest, doesn’t think his boss should be dismissed as a one-trick pony.
‘He gets a lot of stick because he looks like a nightclub bouncer,’ reflected Woan in a previous interview with Mail Sport. ‘People think he must be rough but it couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s well-read, wants to learn and is always asking questions of himself. It’s a million miles away from the public persona.
‘It would be very interesting to see how he’d work a system with top players if he could go toe-to-toe with the big hitters.’
Since 2021 Everton are the only Premier League ever-present to make a profit on transfers
There are 12 Everton players who are currently out of contract at the end of 2024-25
In fact, Dyche did briefly try to be more sophisticated at Burnley in 2018, with wing-backs and a patient build-up. After then conceding 41 goals in 19 games, Dyche restored target-man Chris Wood and the defensive pairing of James Tarkowski and Ben Mee to avoid relegation. He decided not to experiment on a new formula again until he had the players equipped to do it, which Friedkin may 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 restrict the amount the Friedkin Group can spend, even though they are wealthy enough to do so. It might work in Dyche’s favour, as it has helped Eddie Howe survive at Newcastle.
Everton want to capitalise on 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 deliver extraordinary experiences.’
Though Friedkin once wooed Roma fans by personally flying in new signing Romelu Lukaku, you shouldn’t expect him in the cockpit next to Jude Bellingham at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport any time soon. The extravagance of his compatriot Todd Boehly at Chelsea may also act as a warning for 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 fitted the upgrade, he was proven wrong.
To make his case, Dyche could even drop in his own celebrity anecdote when he meets Friedkin, who featured in the Hollywood blockbuster Dunkirk.
As a young coach at Watford, Dyche got to know their honorary life president Sir Elton John, who referred to his new gravel-voiced friend as ‘My angel, my darling’.
Todd Boehly may serve his compatriot as a warning not to try to run before he can walk
Despite the risks of starting afresh Friedkin is likelier to move beyond Dyche to pursue the club’s ambitions
Even with the risks of starting afresh with a new manager, Friedkin is still likelier to view the big picture and move beyond Dyche to pursue the club’s ambitions.
Despite being trophyless for 30 years, Everton’s potential is vast. There is a waiting list of 30,000 season-ticket holders and the club want blue-chip companies fighting over naming rights for the new stadium as well as big-hitters buying up the 5,000 corporate hospitality packages. Grinding out 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 a tough lot to please and have turned against Ronald Koeman, Roberto Martinez and Marco Silva in the past, at least one of whom might be on Everton’s wish-list had they not already tried it out.
Though the current squad want Dyche to be there next season, there are fears it won’t happen. The manager’s main hope is that Friedkin does see advantage in a continuity candidate.
‘The owners are aware it is a challenging situation to build and get right,’ said Dyche. ‘They are speaking about putting the club back where it belongs but also about stability. It is a good start.
‘There is no embarrassment in what I do. The idea of being hero to zero comes and goes very quickly in football. I have 10 years of experience in the Premier League. I know what it’s all about.’
Friedkin has the casting vote and is in the process of choosing which way to use it. While the manager endures the tension of waiting, at least he still has the Finch Farm gym to clear his head.
