Everton sack manager Dyche with club 16th in Premier League

After less than two years in charge of Goodison Park, Sean Dyche has been fired as Everton manager.

Just before Everton were scheduled to play League One side Peterborough in the third round of the FA Cup, the 53-year-old’s departure was made public.

Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, Everton’s under-18 team captain, were announced as the team’s new faces for the game.

Between them, right-back Coleman and left-back Baines have made more than 800 appearances for Everton.

Four members of Dyche’s coaching staff – Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer – have also departed.

The Toffees are 16th in the Premier League and just one point clear of the relegation zone after falling to Bournemouth 1-0 on Saturday.

They have won just three of their 19 league games this season and were unable to score a shot on target at Vitality Stadium.

The new owners had been in discussions with Dyche over a couple of days this week, according to a source close to the Friedkin Group, who completed a £400m takeover of the club last month. Both parties believed they had reached the end of the road. Before a deal was reached, difficult negotiations arose over a deal for Dyche and his staff regarding an exit package.

The source added that the timing of Dyche’s departure, just hours before a game, was not ideal.

According to club sources, David Moyes, former manager of Everton, and other names that have been linked to Dyche’s replacement, should have Premier League experience.

However, sources close to Jose Mourinho have ruled the Fenerbahce manager out of contention.

The former Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham boss previously held positions with the Friedkin Group at Roma before being fired by them in January 2024.

Moyes, 61, served as Everton manager from 2002 to 2013 and recently told BBC Sport that despite his professed desire to “fight relegation,” he was not ready to quit football management.

Speaking on Tuesday, Dyche said that his communication with Everton’s owners had been “positive” with “no indication” they were looking to bring someone else in. He said they had been “been very up front and open” about expectations.

In his programme notes for Thursday’s tie with Peterborough, Dyche wrote he hoped his side could use the FA Cup game to “build some positive momentum”.

Dyche, whose contract was due to expire in the summer, succeeded Frank Lampard on 30 January 2023 with Everton in the relegation zone.

In the final game of the season, the team won 1-0 over Bournemouth to ensure survival.

In spite of receiving eight points for two separate Premier League financial violations, he then led the Toffees to a 15th-place finish in the 2023- to 2024 campaign.

This season, the team has kept seven clean sheets defensively.

But they have struggled for goals, netting only 15, and are the second-lowest scorers in the league, with only bottom club Southampton having managed fewer.

This is Everton’s last season at their 132-year-old stadium before moving to a new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Dyche is the sixth Premier League manager to be fired this year and the second in as many days since West Ham fired Julen Lopetegui on Wednesday.

Everton’s numbers in 2024-25 make for grim reading:

On BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, former Toffees midfielder Leon Osman said, “Doing commentary on their games is not easy at this moment because not much happens.

Anyone will say that you should still be creating chances and scoring goals, even though I do believe the squad is lacking in quality. It is tough to watch.