Sean Dyche has opened up on the ‘biggest challenge’ Everton faced this summer in their bid to bring in a forward as he spoke of his relief at landing Beto.
Sean Dyche said: “The biggest challenge is that our situation has changed financially and the market has gotten higher, and I think we are all aware of that. I have said for years, maybe seven or eight years, that nobody cares for the reality of the market. I think I said a couple of weeks ago we could all sit in a room 10 years ago and, if we had a list of players and debated it, we would come out with similar prize guides. Now it is irrelevant, and we would probably go, ‘Who knows?’ If someone says they want this much, it is down to whether someone wants to pay it or not. So that has made it even tougher, with the numbers going well north. The last six months to a year, there has been a real jump in terms of where the numbers have gone to. Unfortunately, our pot has got smaller as the pots around the country have got bigger. That is just the reality and life at the current time.”
Dyche is no stranger to having to work under tight financial constraints after spending nearly a decade in charge of Burnley. However, the 52-year-old admits the difference in expectations from the supporters of both clubs is something he had to adapt to when becoming Everton boss.
Sean Dyche said: “The difference there was that everybody sort of knew this is where the club is at. It was made pretty clear, but this situation is pretty different. It is Everton Football Club. It has got a different feel. They have put a lot of money into this place, and then there is time when it has had to slow down, and now it is where it is. In a way, yes, because you learn you are not going to get your first draft picks, or very rarely, and you are going to have to work at a different number level, literal numbers for your signings and your wages, than other people are going to have to work with. There was probably a bit more of a tolerant period, though, because everyone understood where it is. Everton is different. I said it last night: Evertonians, as much as they support us, when you are on the pitch, they don’t bother about whether you have got money, no money, injuries, no injuries; they are just like you didn’t win or you did win. So that is what is key to Evertonians, and I have learned that. That is what being at a bigger club is like, as you know, and that is no disrespect to Burnley, a fantastic club, but this is a bigger concern, and so therefore the heat comes on much quicker regardless of the facts. The facts here just don’t count, whereas at Burnley they did, and I think people went, ‘Okay, I sort of know where we are at.’ At Everton, it is a different animal, and I have become well adjusted to that, and I had to.”
Asked about the impact of Beto,
Sean Dyche replied: “Looking a handful, being productive, and scoring a goal, that is a great platform to build on, particularly for strikers. Most strikers, in fact all strikers, buzz off scoring goals. That is how they have grown up, and it is what they want to do, and I think he has definitely got a rawness and raw edge to score goals, and that is good and good to have in the building. We know that Dom will get fit, and he is getting stronger. I suppose every cloud has a silver lining. I didn’t want him to get injured at Villa, but he has now got that extended period to make sure his body is in balance and he can train more and things like that. Maybe it is a cloud with a silver lining for Dom. It is a situation we have been trying to open for a while, the Beto one, so I am pleased we got there in the end.”
