On the January deadline day of the previous season, Sean Dyche and Kevin Thelwell turned down the opportunity to sign many players for Everton, as reported by the Daily Mail.
On April 5, the newspaper stated on its website that both the director of football for the team and the manager of the Toffees had individually exercised caution in the market, despite the manager’s insistence that the financial catastrophe at Goodison Park “would not have happened on my watch, trust me.”
Dyche joined the team late in the January 2023 transfer window, and despite the club being connected to several offensive reinforcements on deadline day, no one materialized.
Former Reading striker Lucas Joao was rumored to have been turned down by Everton, although Dyche and Thelwell are said to have turned down a number of other choices.
He said: “I would have been saying, ‘no, no, no’ because 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’.”
Everton boss forced to operate amid financial uncertainty
Dyche has a growing number of detractors with regards to his management on the pitch amid a miserable run of form that has seen the Toffees go without a Premier League win since 16 December, against former side Burnley.
But in the context of the off-field issues the club arguably has the right man for what is currently quite an unwelcoming job if he himself has been turning down signings.
That sanction of six, down from 10 on appeal, is a measure of the situation he inherited at Goodison Park, and there appears to be a strong likelihood of a second deduction arriving imminently.
Everton have sold far more than they have brought in for some time now, with Beto and Youssef Chermiti the only two players any money has been spent on since Dyche arrived, to leave him with a thin squad that is currently struggling to dig itself out of a rut.
And if the most recent accounts are anything to go by he may see his options weakened further by departures in the summer.
But while there is increasing frustration at his tactics and team selections it may be that he is the ideal manager for a far from ideal situation given his acceptance of the financial picture.
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