Sean Dyche stance shouldn't change but Everton must learn quickly

In this week's Royal Blue column, Chris Beesley highlights the importance of supporter opinion for Sean Dyche and Kevin Thelwell ahead of Everton's trip to Leicester City

Sean Dyche stance shouldn't change but Everton must learn quickly against Leicester

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After Everton’s worst start to a season in 66 years, director of football Kevin Thelwell has admitted that “results have not been anywhere near where we would have wanted,” but can today’s trip to Leicester City really be a “six-pointer” before the end of the astronomical summer?

Talking ahead of the Blues’ fixture at the King Power Stadium, Thelwell conceded it had been difficult so far and proclaimed: “I think we all would have hoped or wanted more,” and that Sean Dyche has been working in “very difficult circumstances.”

As is always the case in football it’s manager Dyche who is the man in the spotlight right now as he’s the one who will ultimately be judged by results but, quite rightly so, Thelwell also took time to mention the club’s loyal but long-suffering supporters.

Speaking to the BBC, the 50-year-old said: “It’s also been very hard for the fanbase because they’ve been ever so patient. They all know what Everton can be, should be, will be, we hope in the future, so it’s difficult come week on week and not see the Everton they want to see, and it’s exactly the same for us.”

Although Thelwell didn't grow up as an Evertonian and his attachment to the club has only been for two-and-a-half years since he left New York Red Bulls to take up his current role on February 25, 2022, he does have a barometer to what True Blues are really thinking through his Liverpool-born father, who has followed the team since boyhood. When speaking last season, Thelwell explained how his dad – who used to be carried on his own father’s shoulders into the Gwladys Street end as a small child – is both his harshest critic and biggest supporter.

“I don’t know if he’s necessarily a translator of information from the stands. Yeah, he’s beating me up if it’s not going right,” revealed Thelwell.

That’s the way it is with those closest to you though. When you’re not doing something properly then they will deliver some home truths, but ultimately, they’ve got your best interests at heart.

Having his father’s straight-talking input must help Thelwell to stay grounded. After all, his office, which he tells us is just a metre away from Dyche’s at the club’s Finch Farm complex is a 35-minute drive from the city centre and tucked away in a rural location surrounded by fields.

When you’re working closer to the heart of the region’s urban core by the banks of the Mersey, you tend to bump into many supporters and that’s just what happened to this correspondent this week while on a trip to the supermarket. A chance encounter with a certain Nick O’Brien from Kirkdale, who recognised me from the ECHO’s Royal Blue podcast on YouTube – reporters used to have a greater degree of anonymity when it was just a small picture byline in the newspaper – prompted a friendly but frank discussion about Everton’s current plight.

“What happens to Dyche if they lose at Leicester?” he asked.

While I maintained my stance that turning to yet another manager – what would be a ninth in eight years – is not the solution and we’re told there is not an appetite within Goodison Park’s corridors of power for this, Mr O’Brien, was not so sure and it was intriguing to listen to his personal take on the man who steered Everton to what would have been a points total level with 11th placed Brighton & Hove Albion last season had it not been for a brace of sporting sanctions, plus of course a first home win in the Merseyside Derby for 13-and-a-half years.

He told me: “When things aren’t going well under Dyche it’s a really tough watch. These days you’ve got to listen to other people in the workplace.”

The stakes aren’t quite as high as the last time that Everton visited the Foxes, for a survival showdown on May 1 last year. On that occasion, Dyche’s side dominated the first half but almost found themselves 3-1 down before the interval if it hadn’t been for Jordan Pickford holding his nerve and staying on his feet to save the penalty that James Maddison struck down the middle of the goal.

Had England’s number one not made that stop in a game that finished 2-2, then it would have probably been the Blues who suffered a first relegation in 72 years instead. But then Leicester wouldn’t have been able to escape punishment through the sharpest of technicalities for their larger PSR breach than Everton’s, so swings and roundabouts for the Foxes, eh?

It means a lot now but what Steve Cooper’s team do this season needn’t be coming into the equation for Everton come May, given where Dyche’s team should find themselves with the quality they still possess within the squad. However, as Thelwell himself also cautioned following the four straight losses, the team needs to learn very quickly.

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