Sean Dyche has class and messaged me in prison, there’s no way he’d walk out on Everton… something doesn’t feel right
SEAN DYCHE is not the sort of person to just give up and walk out on a club.
I know the man well — he was my manager at Watford for the 2011-12 campaign. He’s got class.
When he was sacked in July 2012, he left in difficult circumstances but still fronted it, said thanks to everybody.
He even managed to get a message to me and I was in prison at the time.
Even when he left Burnley, he said his goodbyes in the proper way — he didn’t shirk away, hide and run off into the night without letting everybody know.
He’s a proud man too. He’s never going to admit that he can’t do something.
I’ve heard suggestions he had talks with new owners The Friedkin Group and told them he taken the club as far as he could.
I don’t buy it. It sounds like PR bluffing to me.
And he would not decide to walk out on a club on the morning of a game, without the players even knowing when they turned up to take on Peterborough in the FA Cup on Thursday night.
If he is going into a meeting knowing that he’s going to get the sack, he is still going to say goodbye to the lads.
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So for this to happen, out of nowhere, it doesn’t feel right.
You’re talking about a man’s character and principles here.
I reckon there has been a bit of a to-do at the training ground — about where each party sees things and how the future looks.
I can hazard a guess that these owners told him he can’t say his goodbyes in the way he would have wanted to.
Just leave, sort it out and stay away from everyone.
As a whole, it doesn’t seem right to me.
‘THE NOSTALGIA MOVE’
It is a real panic-button move from the new owners against a manager who has worked pretty well with what he had to choose from.
Including a striker — in Dominic Calvert-Lewin — who has only scored 17 goals in all competitions since August 2021. And if you look at the owners’ history elsewhere, they thrive off of the nostalgia move — but that hasn’t worked wonders so far.
At Roma, they went down the Jose Mourinho route and now have brought back Claudio Ranieri to the club.
It is all about pulling on the heartstrings to get the fans onside.
So, it is no surprise that David Moyes is one of the favourites to take over — a real legend of the club after his largely successful 11-year stint there.
But it just screams of bad planning. It is a short-term fix — and then what?
Let’s say Moyes gets six months and starts doing well. And say he brings another legend back in Wayne Rooney as his assistant and they win eight games between now and the end of the season.
What then? Just get rid of him and risk the wrath of the fans? Or are you going to ask him to stay a little bit longer?
Then Moyes will start plotting and planning for a summer transfer window ahead of moving into their new stadium.
I don’t want to sound disrespectful — because Moyes is a great manager — but will he dramatically change the style of play, the types of players they buy, compared to Dyche?
There is just a lot of confusion. What is their end goal here? What’s the long-term project?
So far, we haven’t got a clue.