Everton Football Club has sacked Sean Dyche as its manager, the club announced in a statement on Thursday.
The decision comes just hours before their FA Cup third-round match against Peterborough.
The statement read, “Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as senior men’s first-team manager with immediate effect. The process to appoint a new manager is underway.”
Dyche’s dismissal follows a string of poor results, with Everton managing just one win in their last 11 matches. This season, they have only secured three wins out of 19 Premier League games, leaving them in 16th place, just one point above the relegation zone.
In the interim, under-18 head coach Leighton Baines and team captain Seamus Coleman will lead the squad while the club searches for a permanent replacement.
Dyche joined Everton in January 2023 and successfully kept the team in the Premier League despite various setbacks, including a points deduction for breaching profit and sustainability rules. The club finished 17th in his first season and 15th last season, maintaining its record of being in the top flight since 1954.
However, Everton’s lack of entertaining football and a poor goal-scoring record under Dyche became major concerns. The team has scored only 15 goals this season, the second lowest in the Premier League, ahead of only Southampton’s 12.
Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth, where Everton failed to register a single shot on target, and their prior 2-0 loss to Nottingham Forest were seen as decisive factors in Dyche’s dismissal.
The club’s new owners, the US-based Friedkin Group, completed their takeover recently and were reportedly in talks with potential replacements before making the decision.
Potential candidates for the managerial role include former Manchester United and Chelsea boss José Mourinho, currently managing Turkish club Fenerbahçe, former Everton manager David Moyes, Brentford’s Thomas Frank, England coach Gareth Southgate, and Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola.
Dyche appeared resigned to the possibility of his dismissal earlier this week. “To be clear, it should be,” he said when asked if the club was considering his position. “If you’re a business of this size, succession planning should surely be part of their diligence. I’ve got no problem with that at all.”
Dyche is the sixth Premier League manager to lose his job this season. His sacking follows the dismissal of Julen Lopetegui from West Ham just a day earlier. Everton’s search for a replacement marks their fifth permanent managerial change in four years.
