Sean Dyche has told his players he will not be their fall guy as the club fights again for Premier League survival.
The Blues boss held talks with his squad as part of efforts to address the dismal performance at Chelsea - a display he accepted was “miles” off the standards he expects.
Dyche said discussions turned to the churn of managers over recent years and told the players that if they were hoping they could inspire another change for an easier life: “I’m not that guy. I’m staying. I’m fighting.”
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Managerial chaos has characterised the reign of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. Dyche is the eighth Everton manager in eight years and several of those tenures ended with awful performances that made change feel inevitable. Dyche’s predecessor Frank Lampard left after a January that saw limp displays against West Ham United, Southampton and Brighton and Hove Albion. Lampard lasted just over a year - around twice as long as Rafa Benitez, whose own troubled period ended when the Blues lost at bottom of the table Norwich City.
Ahead of Everton’s match with relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, Dyche was asked whether there was a danger of the pattern continuing after the horror show at Stamford Bridge. He said: “It’s a fair question – and I have absolutely gone through this with the players. Is it now just a cycle that the club is in? Every year you want a new manager, you get a new manager, you get a bounce then six months later it’s: ‘Boo! We want him out!’ and you just keep doing that? Is that where we are at? I don’t mind telling you this because people want the truth. After Monday I said to them: ‘Is it that time of year again when you just want an easy life where you get a new manager in, you get a new manager bounce and everyone says hurrah?’ I said: ‘Lads, I’m not that guy. I’m staying. I’m fighting.’ If you want that to happen, you help yourselves. If the fans want that to happen, so be it. I’m fighting. I’m not blaming anyone. I’ve never done that in my career and I’m not going to start now. I know the truth of what I am trying to manage here. And it is a lot. But I am up to it. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it.”
Dyche referenced the long list of former managers who had struggled during the Moshiri era throughout his press conference on Friday. He also pointed to the off-the-pitch issues that have dogged Everton this season. After a summer transfer window in which the club had barely any money to spend and instead lost some of the more influential players came a takeover that is yet to be completed seven months on and two points deductions. Without the loss of those eight points, Everton would be clear of trouble.
Dyche stressed he did not think there was an easy answer as he tried to deliver stability against that backdrop. He said he referred to past managers and their struggles as evidence there was no “magic key” to the club’s issues. He added: “I respect all the seven previous managers to me because it’s not an easy job to be a manager let alone here, all the different money in, money out, the different demands - no-one has found the magic answer. I’m still searching. I’m just searching under more trying circumstances, I think that’s fair to say. But I am still searching. So what I am saying is there is a magic answer because clubs get to the point where they find it. But how do we find it? What are we doing to put in place how to find it?
“The short-term fix scenario I don’t think has worked at this football club, I think that’s fair to say. Throw money at this and that - it hasn’t worked. I’m attempting to build something… But while you’re trying to win a game, which is my responsibility, I can’t just let the other stuff just go in the background and let it do what it’s been doing. That would be ridiculous because the mess needs sorting out.”