DYCHE FITS BILL...BUT WILL A BIG CLUB GIVE AN ENGLISH BOSS A GO?
AT Goodison Park on Sunday, it was easy to see things a great club still get right. At one end a stand recently named after the club’s most successful manager, Howard Kendall, and at the other end one named after the chairman who helped him win two league titles, Sir Philip Carter. Less than a month ago, meanwhile, Everton held a tribute day for another one of their own, the late Alan Ball. These things matter at clubs such as Everton. They show an understanding of the needs and emotions of their supporters. This was, as it turns out, something that the departed manager Ronald Koeman could no longer do. The reasons for Koeman’s sacking are clear: poor results and a direction of travel pointing down. It is a shame, though. When they were good last season, Koeman’s Everton were very good and lovely to watch. They played nice football and had a pragmatism about them. Perfect, you may say, for the Premier League. As defender Leighton Baines said in these pages a year ago: ‘It’s important to have the quality but also just to have the pride about where we are playing. All the big teams should hate coming here. It should be a nightmare for them. That should be part of playing here. This is Goodison, you know.’ Watching Everton’s final game under Koeman on Sunday, they had lost that bullishness, confidence and energy. They were supine, reactive and humble. So Koeman has gone and once more there is a hole at the heart of the club. Where there should be direction and momentum, there are question marks. Who are we? What are we? Where do we want to go and how? In trying to answer that, it’s tempting to go back to Baines and what he talked about. He didn’t say it and it’s not what he meant, but maybe a little Britishness may not go amiss at Everton this time. There will be some decent candidates as Everton are attractive with a decent squad, some money and a new stadium planned. But if they want to progress on the pitch then a return to core values may work.
They look like they need a manager with an understanding of the Premier League and Everton’s place in it, somebody with the ability to punch upwards. As of last night Burnley manager Sean Dyche was at the very forefront of their thoughts and that feels about right. At 46, Dyche represents a mixture of traditional principles and new ideas. He currently has a touch of what Sam Allardyce had about him during his years at Bolton. He has a fearlessness and desire to — using his own words — simply ‘manage what is front of me’. Dyche also improves footballers in a way that some coaches do not. One Everton fan was in touch to ask sceptically last night: ‘What has Dyche won?’ Well, what have Everton won recently? The answers are about the same. So if English clubs need to get past their recent refusal to countenance some of our own managers then here is an opportunity. As we continue to worry about the state of our game and the coaches we produce, it would be a shame if it was passed up. Everton have a duty to make the right decision for themselves, of course. But if an English coach doesn’t get a big job this time, it is tempting to wonder if one ever will.