Dan Friedkin sacking Sean Dyche immediately after completing his takeover at Everton would be a “mistake”, Danny Murphy has said.
Speaking on TalkSPORT (25 September, 10:55am), Murphy said that despite Dyche not looking likely to be in his job beyond the end of the season, he is the right man to keep the Blues in the Premier League.
Friedkin agreed a deal to buy Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1 per cent stake on 23 September, and Murphy hoped the new Toffees owner would keep faith in Dyche.
He said: “If they get it done in the next couple of months, however long it takes, and then got rid of Dyche, I think that would be a mistake.
“I’ve no doubt he’ll keep Everton in the league, and their simple objective for this season is to stay in the league.
“They don’t want to move into that new stadium in the Championship – that would be a catastrophe.
“Knowledgable Evertonians know what Dyche brings and what he can do, even if it’s not what they want moving forward.”
Dyche’s track record at Goodison does suggest that if there’s anyone who can keep the Toffees’ heads above water this season [Simon Jordan, 25 September], it’s him, having done so despite two points deductions last season.
Friedkin’s takeover is expected to bring an end to the club’s financial struggles – giving Dyche one less distraction off the pitch – but it remains to be seen if the 53-year-old will be given funds in January.
The weeks between now and Friedkin officially taking the reins at Goodison could prove to be crucial in Dyche’s bid to save his job, having won zero games from five in the Premier League so far this season.
If Dyche has not been able to turn the Toffees’ dismal early-season form around by the time Friedkin is ratified as Everton’s new owner, it would not be surprising to see him given the bullet.
The Blues can ill afford to suffer relegation this season with their move to Bramley-Moore Dock on the horizon, and Friedkin will do everything he can to prevent that – with or without Dyche in the dugout.
Dyche Will Keep Everton In The League, Says Carragher
Jamie Carragher says Everton should not sack Sean Dyche despite the Toffees’ poor start to the Premier League season.
The former Liverpool defender has backed Dyche to navigate Everton away from relegation once more, months after the Merseysiders escaped the bottom three in the 2023/24 campaign with just games to spare despite having eight points deducted from their total..
Everton earned their first point of the season in a 1-1 draw at Leicester on Saturday but threw away a lead for the third week in a row, after squandering 2-0 advantages against Bournemouth and Aston Villa.
The Merseysiders had some rare good news on Monday, with reports claiming US billionaire Dan Friedkin is now close to buying the club from Farhad Moshiri, subject to regulatory approval.
It remains to be seen if the new owners will decide to stick with the under-fire Dyche, having already made managerial changes to their AS Roma club, sacking club icon Daniele De Rossi after an equally poor start to the league campaign.
Carragher, speaking on The Overlap, backed Dyche to steer Everton clear of relegation for a second season in a row and suggested the Toffees should stick with the 53-year-old for the remainder of the season:
“I know the football's not amazing, but when people talk about changing Sean Dyche now, I don't quite see that.
“I see Everton in a new stadium with new ownership, with a new manager next season. I do see that.
“But I don't think they should be thinking about changing the manager this season in terms of like, would someone else would keep you in the Premier League?
“I still think Sean Dyche would be able to navigate that.”
Southgate Linked To Everton Job
Following Everton’s lacklustre start to the Premier League campaign, former England boss Gareth Southgate has been linked with a potential managerial vacancy at Goodison Park.
GIVEMESPORT journalist Ben Jacobs reported that Dan Friedkin could look to hire the ex-Middlesbrough boss to replace Dyche as Toffees manager.
Southgate has been out of work since resigning as Three Lions boss in July after their defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final, and last coached a club in the 2009/10 season, when he left Middlesbrough in October after 151 games in charge.
David Moyes also appears to be a contender to re-take the hotseat and return to Merseyside 11 years since departing for Manchester United, with reports that he could be the number one option among current board members.
Ndiaye The Shining Light At Everton
Everton striker Iliman Ndiaye has been praised as ‘the shining light’ of the Toffees’ poor start to the season, after the 24-year-old’s efforts helped secure the club’s first point of the season.
Ndiaye’s goal against Leicester City on Sunday put Everton in front in the second half before Stephy Mavididi netted a 73rd-minute equaliser to shatter Dyche’s side’s hopes again.
BBC football pundit Troy Deeney praised Ndiaye’s performance after the match, lauding the Senegalese international’s work rate and attacking prowess:
“The last three weeks, when Everton have been really poor, he's been the shining light. He looks like he's the one with no fear.
“He works really hard off the ball and on it he adds a different dimension and quality that Everton didn't have.”
Dyche Still The Right Man For Everton
Former Everton striker Louis Saha believes Sean Dyche can turn things around but the players need to do better with pressure growing
Manager Sean Dyche can still turn things around at Everton but the pressure is growing and “the players need to do better,” says former Blues striker Louis Saha. Everton have endured their worst start to a season for 66 years.
They go to newly promoted Leicester City on Saturday searching for their first points of the Premier League season having lost their opening four fixtures against Brighton & Hove Albion (3-0); Tottenham Hotspur (4-0); Bournemouth (3-2) and Aston Villa (3-2) while also crashing out of the Carabao Cup at home to Southampton.
That was despite the Saints, who have also just come up from the Championship, having made 10 changes to their starting line-up.
Everton continued to offer unwavering support to under-fire manager Dyche, who steered the Blues to safety in 2022/23 despite replacing Frank Lampard 20 games into the season with the team joint bottom of the table, and then guided them to a points total that would have been level with 11th placed Brighton & Hove Albion last term if it hadn’t been for a brace of sporting sanctions for PSR breaches.
Against Southampton, Dyche became the longest-serving Everton manager of Farhad Moshiri’s ownership but after eight incumbents of the home dugout at Goodison Park in as many years, Saha reckons the squad need to take responsibility for their recent failings.
The former France international, now 46, told Casino Hawks: “Sean Dyche is still the right man for Everton, you have to look at how well they would’ve done last season in the table if it wasn’t for the points deductions.
“They have to look for the same magic that got them 13 wins last season. Things are so frustrating at the moment because you can’t be scoring two goals and losing games, it’s not acceptable at this level.
“Individual errors have cost them points and are losing them games, Everton need to find consistency and eliminating these errors will be the first step. In my view the players need to do better, they’re making errors that get punished and the manager also needs to work out how to solve that.
“He's responsible for everything that players do and I do think that he is a great communicator, but something isn’t quite right at the moment.
“Things will turn around for Everton but that might not be till next year, they are a great club but sometimes having that history doesn’t help you. The Premier League is very tough and the pressure is only going to get bigger.”
No One Will Do Better Than Dyche, Says Simon Jordan
Speaking on TalkSPORT (25 September, 10:53 am), the co-host said that following Friedkin’s impending takeover of the club, he thinks Dyche’s job should be safe for the time being.
Despite agreeing that Dyche’s future is not safe in the long-term, Jordan admitted that he should get until towards the end of the 2024/25 season.
“They’ve had four managers at Roma in four years, so he makes managerial changes moderately quickly,” he said.
“Sean Dyche is going to do no worse or no better than anyone else coming in to deal with the current malaise.
“Unless you’re going to change the landscape for Sean, which is give him a lot more resources and better players, then it’s difficult to see who would do a better job.
“I think that in the short term, it shouldn’t mean much to Sean – towards the end of the season, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a change.”
The Toffees’ start to the season has hardly created the most welcoming of atmospheres for any new owner, with four defeats from five and one point on the board leaving Dyche’s side in the bottom three.
Already under pressure to reverse the Blues’ woeful form [Tony Scott, 18 September], Dyche’s saving grace at Goodison Park could simply be the time it takes to process Friedkin’s buyout of Farhad Moshiri.
Friedkin’s deal to purchase Moshiri’s 94.1 per cent majority stake in the club may have been agreed on 23 September, but gaining Premier League approval and ratifying the changeover could take months.
With a November or December date expected before Friedkin can truly call himself Everton’s new owner, Dyche must have weathered the storm and firmly turned his side’s form around if he’s to survive.
The 53-year-old’s current contract expires just a few months later in May, and to earn a new deal, he has to start winning football matches and keep the club in the Premier League.
A New Era Begins At Goodison
Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes both agree that Sean Dyche and Everton will avoid the drop this season but the future is uncertain for the manager.
With a poor start to the season, the atmosphere was hugely negative as their takeover issues continued to frustrate. However, a point at the weekend and news of an agreement with the Friedkin Group has brought renewed hope and a question about the future of the manager in charge.
“I think Sean Dyche has done a really good job, from where he’s come in to where they are now,” he told Sky Bet’s The Overlap. “They would have finished not far off mid-table last season if the points deductions weren’t there.
“It’s been a poor start to the season but normally when you look to bring in a manager to keep you in the league, it’s that type of manager – clean sheets, make it difficult and hard to beat. I know the football hasn’t been amazing but when people talk about changing Sean Dyche now, I don’t quite see it. I see Everton in a new stadium, with new ownership and a new manager next season. I don’t think they should be thinking about changing the manager this season.
Scholes agrees with Carragher and believes that Everton will stay up, but that the new owners could be ruthless.
“I always think about teams that are in the bottom areas of the league and if you can’t score goals you’re knackered,” he said. “Everton will be fine because they’ve shown that they can score goals.
“Yes, they’ve let a few in which they probably shouldn’t have done and had good leads in games where they’ve lost points, but I always think you have a chance if you can score goals. You look at teams like Southampton and don’t see where the goals will come from. Ipswich, I thought would score more goals but have had a tough start to the season.”
“Sean Dyche is an experienced manager and if they do stick with him then they’ll stay in the league,” added Scholes. “With these new owners coming in, we’ve just seen what they’ve done at Roma with [Daniele] De Rossi so they can be quite ruthless.”
