LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom (AFP) — Premier League strugglers Everton sacked manager Sean Dyche on Thursday, just hours before their FA Cup third-round tie against Peterborough.

Speculation about Dyche’s future had intensified with reports suggesting Everton’s new owners, the US-based Friedkin Group, were talking to potential successors since completing a £400 million (US$492 million) takeover last month.

Everton said in a statement Dyche had been “relieved of his duties as senior men’s first-team manager with immediate effect” after two years in charge, with the process to appoint a new boss under way.

The Toffees are once again battling to avoid relegation from the Premier League after winning just one of their past 11 games, with that sole success coming against fellow drop candidates Wolves in December.

Everton Under-18s head coach Leighton Baines and club captain Seamus Coleman will take charge against third-tier Peterborough on an interim basis while the Liverpool side seek a permanent replacement for Dyche.

Former Manchester United and Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, currently in charge of Turkish club Fenerbahce, has recently been linked with Everton.

Mourinho has experience of working with the Friedkin Group at Roma, although the Italian club sacked him just under a year ago.

David Moyes, who managed Everton between 2002 and 2013, ex-England coach Gareth Southgate, Brentford boss Thomas Frank and Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola are also among the reported contenders to succeed Dyche.

Everton have won only three times in 19 league matches this season and are languishing in 16th place, with only one point separating them from the relegation zone.

Asked earlier this week if the club were considering his position, Dyche’s answer suggested he knew the sack could be looming.

“To be clear, it should be,” the former Burnley boss said.

“At the end of the day, 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.

“I think the noise has grown very powerful here. It does. But we’ve had it before.

“The players haven’t lacked effort but it’s obviously affecting them because you can see it in their performances.”

– Final straw –
Dyche took charge at Everton in January 2023 and kept them in the top-flight despite numerous issues, including last season’s points deduction for breaching Premier League rules on profit and sustainability.

They finished 17th in Dyche’s first season, avoiding the drop with a victory against Bournemouth on the last day, and came 15th last term, extending their streak of being ever-present in English football’s top-flight since 1954.

But chief among Everton’s problems under the 53-year-old Englishman were a lack of entertainment and a paucity of goals.

Everton’s tally of just 15 this season is the second worst in the Premier League, behind only bottom of the table Southampton’s 12.

Dyche’s reliance on aggressive long-ball tactics had worked well on a limited budget at Burnley, who defied the odds to stay in the Premier League for much of his 10-year spell as manager.

But Everton fans demand more entertaining fare from their team, making it especially painful when they failed to muster a single shot on target in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth and managed only two in their 2-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the previous game.

That proved the final straw for the Friedkin Group and Everton will now begin the search for their fifth permanent manager in the past four years.

Everton’s new owners will be mindful that the club are playing their final season at Goodison Park before moving to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next term.

Goodison has been Everton’s home for 132 years and the Friedkin Group would surely like an eye-catching appointment to lead them into the new era.

Dyche, who was in the last year of his Everton contract, is the sixth manager in the 20-team Premier League to lose his job this season.