Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche spoke of the job he did and the connections he forged at Everton, who he will face at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday
Nottingham Forest head coach and former Everton manager Sean Dyche ahead the UEFA Europa League league-stage football match between Nottingham Forest and FF Malmo. Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images
Nottingham Forest head coach and former Everton manager Sean Dyche ahead the UEFA Europa League league-stage football match between Nottingham Forest and FF Malmo. Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images
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Sean Dyche re-iterated his pride in the job he did at Everton as he reflected on his first match against the club he managed for almost two years. The 54-year-old left the Blues in January with the club hovering above the relegation zone and looking set to face a fourth consecutive fight for survival.
His influence was key to overcoming two of those, while he also managed the crisis that enveloped Everton when they were hit by two points deductions for breaching Premier League spending rules.
Dyche is now set to face the Blues as manager of Nottingham Forest on Saturday. And in his pre-match press conference, he reflected on his time in charge at Finch Farm.
Dyche said: “It was hard. I said openly it was a very hard situation to manage, and I was very proud - of what we all did by the way - not just me.
“As a manager you do take the heat and the criticism, you do take the good stuff as well, but there were so many people involved in making sure that the club got through a really messy period on and off the pitch for many different reasons and to navigate a way through it.
“The time [to leave] had probably come, that is the way it goes, players were just dwindling a little bit, the heat was coming on, and I thought a change of face would work, and it has done.
“Moyesy (David Moyes), with his history of the club, and his know-how of the Premier League, is doing a good job, as I thought he would do, and they have spent some money, which they knew they needed to invest and they have done.”
Dyche was in charge during the turbulent final years of Farhad Moshiri’s reign, one characterised by a long search for new ownership that eventually ended when The Friedkin Group took control last December.
Everton received the keys to Hill Dickinson Stadium days later but Dyche was unable to ride the wave of positivity inspired by the beginning of a new era. His final game was a miserable defeat at Bournemouth - where the Blues won for the first time in the Premier League on Tuesday.
Dyche continued: “I worked hard there, [I am] very happy with the work I did there overall and, as I said, many others, I left on good terms with everyone there and said look, this is the way it goes, and moved forward and I have done, my time there is done, and now it is about Nottingham Forest football club, that is all I am interested in.”
On whether he anticipated a good reception from Everton supporters, he said: “The Toffees are a strong bunch in many ways, it may be good, bad or indifferent, I don’t know, but deep down they know the work that we did.
“I know there are plenty of them because they all came and told me.
“Whatever reception I get is not really relevant, it is about the team going and performing, but there are a lot of good people there, who work very hard, and there are still people, they know they can trust me, and I certainly trust them.
“A lot of good links were made there down through a very difficult period.
“And there is great value in the players there, the ones from my time there, they worked very hard through an awkward period.”