Everton will hand new boss Sean Dyche transfer funds and the remit to reshape their struggling squad after a week-long managerial search finally ended on Friday.
i understands that an official announcement will come over the weekend after Dyche shook hands on a multi-year deal on Friday. The club broke off talks with Marcelo Bielsa, Farhad Moshiri’s preferred option, despite the former Leeds boss flying to London to meet Everton officials earlier in the week.
Instead Dyche – a more realistic and readily available option who believes he can make an instant impact on the squad – has got the nod.
His first job will be to oversee what sources believe will be a flurry of late transfer activity at Everton. The club have agreed a deal to sell Anthony Gordon to Newcastle for £40m and it has been stressed that all of that fee will be made available for player purchases with no requirement to sell for Financial Fair Play reasons.
Gordon had driven the transfer by failing to turn up for training on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s understood that he made it clear to Everton that he wanted to leave for Newcastle, whose manager Eddie Howe was behind the club’s vigorous pursuit of the forward. The player will complete a medical on Tyneside over the weekend and the deal is expected to be confirmed ahead of Newcastle’s League Cup semi-final against Southampton.
For Everton, replacing Gordon is just one priority for incoming boss Dyche. The club are hopeful of at least “three or four” signings before Tuesday’s deadline, including a much-needed forward who can add firepower to one of the Premier League’s lowest-scoring sides. The Toffees are also looking for a winger and are expected to be one of the busiest clubs before Tuesday’s 12pm deadline.
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‘It's not the same Sunderland’: Why Joe Gelhardt loan typifies Black Cats' transfer overhaul27 January, 2023Dyche impressed at interviews by stressing how improvements could be wrung from the existing squad, which includes several players he has previously worked with. And while he isn’t the transformative candidate that Bielsa represents, time had to be called on that appointment with the Argentinian resistant to being parachuted in halfway through a campaign.
It emerged on Friday that Bielsa was so reluctant to take over in mid-season that he proposed working with the under-21s and the academy for the remainder of the campaign before getting a full close season to implement his philosophy and strategy. Unsurprisingly that idea was deemed unworkable for a club who stand to lose around £50m in TV revenue if they are relegated – a devastating blow given how hamstrung they have been by Financial Fair Play regulations over the last 12 months.
Dyche’s first two games are against Arsenal at Goodison Park before a Merseyside derby at Anfield. They then take on Leeds on 18 February in a game with huge potential significance. He is understood to be keen to get going and wants a full week on the training ground.
Coaches Ian Woan, an Everton supporter, and Steve Stone are set to complete his backroom staff.
Everton will hope the Dyche appointment draws a line under a damaging and tumultuous week at Goodison Park but in truth, many of the faultlines which have so concerned supporters this week remain.
The club’s managerial search bore many of the hallmarks of the issues that have brought Everton to this crossroads. No-one is quite clear who is driving decisions at the club, not least because Moshiri himself stressed how collegiate their approach to Frank Lampard’s sacking was before taking charge of the managerial search.
Indeed Moshiri was so enamoured with the idea of Bielsa that talks went on for three days – vital time that has been lost in the transfer window.
One of Thelwell’s responsibilities had been to look at succession planning and he had a database of possible candidates to replace Lampard based on playing style, suitability to fit in with the squad and the club’s aspirations.
But quite how much influence Thelwell and that body of work had on the managerial search is unclear. Given Bielsa’s demanded changes to the coaching set-up would have undercut his own ‘cultural reset’, it feels unlikely Thelwell would have pushed his claims.
The belief of some at the club is that all of those worries will be pushed into the background if Dyche can reverse the losing culture that had seeped in over the final few months of Lampard’s reign. He has to hit the ground running.
Gordon hoping Newcastle switch can boost Euros chances
Gordon can gatecrash Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 plans. That is the firm belief of player and his new manager who has driven Newcastle’s latest significant investment in potential.
Howe’s judgement has been backed with a £40m payment – reported as being in one lump sum – on a player Newcastle believe can be a full England international before long. Reinforcements for their Champions League push are a sign of intent.
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Gordon is raw, though, and has plenty to learn. Lampard took him under his wing but was unable to develop him as he had hoped, with Gordon a peripheral figure. Some believe that he wasn’t utilised correctly in a team that was consistently under the cosh, and being barracked by a minority of supporters outside Goodison Park hardly helped the mood.
But Gordon is a confident person and will be aware that he has a point to prove after pushing for a move by missing training at Everton this week. On Tyneside, he begins with a clean slate and joins a club on a soaring upwards trajectory.
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