Everton had Premier League’s easiest start – now pressure is on for Sean Dyche with £600m takeover complete by Christmas
DAN FRIEDKIN is on schedule to make many despairing Everton fans’ Christmas wishes come true.
The days are passing fast on his £600million Toffees takeover that will finally see the departure of debunked majority owner Farhad Moshiri, expected by the end of next month.
Whether boss Sean Dyche will be able to mark the Californian’s arrival as a season to be merry or not remains to be seen.
For he is about to start opening the windows on an advent calendar from hell.
By the time he has completed it, any thoughts he might have had of landing a new contract from Friedkin could be mere humbug.
Dyche goes into Saturday’s home clash with Brentford under growing pressure.
The game will signal the end of what Opta stats suggest was the easiest start of this campaign for any Prem club.
Yet in 11 games Everton have scraped together only ten points, with just two wins and ten goals.
And that after kicking off with four defeats in a row to mark their worst league opening in 66 years.
And now comes the hard bit.
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Following the visit of the Bees is a trip to Old Trafford a week on Sunday in what will be Ruben Amorim’s first home league game as Manchester United’s new manager.
Wolves at Goodison follows on December 4 before resurgent title leaders Liverpool come calling in the Merseyside derby three days later.
It is not liable to get any easier, either, with Arsenal at the Emirates on December 14, Chelsea on the 22nd then a Boxing Day meeting with reigning champs Manchester City.
Were Dyche and his players still standing after that lot then he would surely deserve backing from incoming chief Friedkin.
But everything points to another winter of discontent among the majority of supporters and a third successive drop battle.
Fans are grateful to the 53-year-old manager for keeping the club up against a backdrop of financial crises and sales of prized playing assets like Anthony Gordon and Amadou Onana.
A year ago Dyche and Co were left reeling by a ten–point penalty, later reduced by two points, over breaches of the Prem’s Profit and Sustainability Rules. Another two points were docked later.
Throughout his near-two-year tenure, Dyche has been swimming against the Mersey tide.
Transfer funds for new players have not even been at the same level as most Championship clubs. And there is appreciation on the Gwladys Street End for his efforts.
But, increasingly, he is facing a revolt over his playing style.
The faithful complain about dull, predictable, long-ball tactics, with striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin — who is refusing to extend his own deal that also expires next summer — as the only attacking option.
If — and it is a big if — Dyche can keep Everton up, do they really want to kick-off Prem life in their new 52,888-seater stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock playing that brand of football?
As the takeover of The Friedkin Group has gained momentum, Dyche has repeatedly sounded off about the problems he has faced.
He said: “There seems to always be that cloud waiting around Everton Football Club — on or off the pitch.”
Before the 2–1 win over Crystal Palace in September, the ex-Watford and Burnley boss stressed, “Some day the truth will come out,” on how difficult his time in charge has been.
He added: “After all that’s been happening, it would be nice just to talk about football.
“That’s something that’s happened about twice since I got here 21 months ago. I’ve worked hard to correct a lot of things and I think I’ve done a very good job.”
But more and more, Dyche comes across as someone who does not see himself lasting too much longer.
There is also his admission that, despite the mess he has been trying to clean up, “the fans want to see a winning team, no matter what”.
And through no great fault of his own, Dyche has struggled to produce winning teams, having just hit the 550-game mark as a manager.
Brentford’s visit will be his 77th game in charge at Goodison, with just 25 victories.
How many more he gets over the next sequence that ends at the Etihad — by which time Friedkin is likely to be in charge — will almost certainly decide his future.
Dyche, facing that nightmare fixture schedule, may well need a Christmas miracle of his own to survive the entrance of Moshiri’s successor.