Struggling Everton sack manager Sean Dyche

Struggling 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, had been talking to potential successors after completing a takeover of the Liverpool club.

Everton said in a statement that Dyche had been "relieved of his duties as senior men's first-team manager with immediate effect" and the process to appoint a new boss was underway.

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 strugglers Wolves in December.

The club's under-18s head coach Leighton Baines and captain Seamus Coleman will take charge on an interim basis while Everton's new owners search for 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.

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.

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."

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 and came 15th last term, extending their streak of being ever-present in the top-flight since 1954.

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

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

Everton 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.

Dyche is the sixth manager to lose his job in the Premier League this season after Julen Lopetegui, since replaced by Graham Potter, was sacked by West Ham on Wednesday.

AFP