Sean Dyche has condemned the mismanagement that has left Everton facing two points deductions in one season and insisted he would never have allowed the club’s reckless spending to happen on his watch.
Everton are braced for a second deduction next week that would jeopardise their Premier League status following a hearing into a breach of profit and sustainability rules (PSR) for the three-year period up to 2022-23. The club has already been docked 10 points this season, reduced to six on appeal, for a £19.5m overspend in the four-year period up to 2021-22.
No one at Everton has taken responsibility for the financial failings that have plagued the club under the ownership of Farhad Moshiri, but in a rare departure, Dyche has blamed those in authority at Goodison Park for the financial mess he inherited and admitted the club are paying a heavy price for their recklessness.
The Everton manager, who is without a win in a club-record 13 Premier League games and faces former club Burnley in a critical relegation clash on Saturday, said: “I would say there has been a step forward from where it was over the last two seasons. Even with this tough run, if we were on 32 points I think most people would say that is actually a decent shift forward. You take the points away and it looks different and everyone seems to forget that. It [the breach] wasn’t on my watch unfortunately. It wouldn’t have happened on my watch, trust me, because I would have been saying: ‘No, no, no, no’. The health of the club is important to me. Having played my part in building one [at Burnley] I wouldn’t be throwing the club under the bus by saying: ‘I am the manager, I need £250m’. I would be going: ‘No, how can that work for this club? We cannot afford it.’
“I am a custodian and I need to look after the club as best as I can. I will be judged on whether I win or lose but I know that the whole club is in a healthier position than when I got here. Being honest, if someone wants to give me £200m I will have a go at spending it. But if it is £200m at the cost of the club I will go: ‘No, you can’t do that’, because that is going to hurt in the long run more than it helps.”
Carlo Ancelotti and Frank Lampard were the heaviest spending Everton managers during the periods that resulted in PSR breaches. Denise Barrett-Baxendale was chief executive the entire time. She left last June with a pay-off of around £3m and has not testified at either of the two PSR breach hearings. Moshiri and Bill Kenwright, the late chairman, were also responsible for Everton’s financial predicament.
“I am not judging anyone, but the story has been out there a long time,” added Dyche. “I am definitely not judging managers because on the pitch is a different thing. But somebody had to, down that timeline, say: ‘Hang on a minute’. Someone. I certainly did. When I first got here, before the first deadline. We were linked with a few players and they were going to have a go and I said: ‘You can’t do that, we haven’t got that money and we are going to need that money more in the summer than we do now’. It was a big risk but we got the first job [staying in the Premier League] done. I have to take the heat along the way but I am not going to change my belief in it.
“The club needs to be in a healthier position than it has been, so someone has got to jump on the grenade. I just didn’t think there was going to be quite as many. I put my Kevlar vest on and go: ‘Right, here we go again’.”
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Everton’s latest accounts for the year ending June 2023 make for further grim reading, with a loss of £89.1m and a warning over the club’s ability to continue as a going concern. 777 Partners has still not convinced the Premier League to allow its proposed takeover seven months after agreeing a deal with Moshiri.
“Here lies the truth,” said Dyche of the accounts. “If fans are ever asking: ‘Why aren’t you signing him or why aren’t you doing that?’ here lies the truth.”
The Everton manager also indicated that the club’s best talents may again be sold this summer to reduce losses. “It’s fair to say player trading has been important and will be going forwards,” he said.