Battle-hardened Sean Dyche says his expiring contract at Everton is the ‘least of his worries’ after the club’s potential new owner John Textor openly discussed the beleaguered manager’s Goodison Park future this week.
Crystal Palace chief Textor claims he has an exclusivity agreement to buy Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1 per cent stake in Everton and said on Wednesday that he would like to speak to Dyche to ensure they are on the same page if he was to successfully take over the club.
But Dyche, after a 10-year stint at Burnley, instead insists he is most familiar with being questioned.
“That’s standard, in 10 years as a manager if you think I haven’t been down this road before you would be wrong,” said the Everton boss.
“Even at Burnley they would talk about managers for years – ‘what about that, they should do this.’ It’s standard in the business now. Unless one is among the legendary managers with legendary status at certain clubs, it is unlikely one is not going to get questioned in that way.’
“Arsenal boss [Mikel] Arteta has signed a new deal. Three years ago at the beginning of the season – three games in – there were people saying he’s got to go! I remember they won a few games 1-0, next thing they look like the old Arsenal, three years later he is signing a new deal.
“Arsene Wenger of all people was questioned – a manager whose trading paid for a stadium! Everton has had nine years of that kind of thing every 12 or 18 months, with noise generated either from bad results or a feel that, ‘You’ve got to change it.’
“I look at the club, where we are at – the player trading, the money we have saved, the players we’ve got, the injuries we’ve got – and say, ‘Could this happen? Yeah. Do I want it to happen? No. Am I working hard to stop it from happening? Of course’. The outside noise won’t go away.”
With his contract running out this summer Dyche was asked if he would need to speak to a new owner before committing to a new deal.
He replied: “Absolutely not. I don’t have to. These things take care of themselves. The last thing on my mind if I spoke to a new owner – if there was a new owner – would be my contract. That will sort itself out one way or another.
“That’s the other side of the business. They want to know you, what’s happening, where we are at. My contract is the least of my concerns at the moment. The first of my concerns is the team winning football matches.”
This is exactly what Everton will try to do on Saturday when they travel to Aston Villa for the tea-time kick-off and the club released a statement on Thursday afternoon reiterating their support for Dyche after Textor’s comments.
The statement, penned by interim chief executive Colin Chong, read: “While positive conversations and progress continues to be made with Mr Textor to formalise any deal with him, there remains some work to be done to complete the transaction.
“Accordingly, the comments made by Mr Textor merely represent his personal view on Club matters. Everyone at the club is staying focused on providing the best support possible to Sean and the squad as we head into the weekend’s fixture.”