Everton manager Sean Dyche is confident that the club has all it takes to attract quality players to Goodison Park.
The Toffees previously paid a record fee to acquire Romeo Lukaku, Richarlison, Lucas Digne and Marouna Fellaini, although, some of the players in the team came through the ranks of the club, Dyche believes the outfit can still lure world-class players.
Dyche said: “The name Everton is still a powerful name. I think the fact that we have stayed up again suggests a good situation.
“I think the fact that some of the younger players have come through, not from the academy, but Jarrad [Branthwaite] and James Garner and have developed and Myko [Vitaliy Mykolenko] has developed and Patto [Nathan Patterson] has been unfortunate but is still developing under the radar. I think there is still a belief from some players that they see players moving through that system.
“I don’t know, but I think it is still powerful enough whereby we can attract players. Inevitably what mostly attracts players is finance – don’t kid yourselves I have been in the game long enough.”
Everton fans must not lose hope
Dyche has showered encomiums on Everton supporters despite some negative treatments from them especially when the team is not meeting their expectations.
Everton has endured a torrid campaign in the 2023/24 Premier League season, winning only 12 of their 36 games, the result has forced the team to be battling with relegation, having only acquired 37 points to the placed 15th on the league table.
The team has lost 15 games in the current campaign, including a 6-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea and now, the club must secure a victory against Sheffield United to maintain a place in the English topflight and Dyche has called on the fans not to lose hope but to rally behind the team.
He continued: “I think after the game at Chelsea it was even more appreciated. It would have been easy then for everyone to go: ‘Right, we’ve had enough of all this,’ but no one did.
“Everyone stuck to task, including the fans so I think that’s fair. You know if they didn’t, I wouldn’t have moaned about it, I’d have been: ‘I get it’, we’d have just had to have played through it.
“But I think it is very helpful, whatever fans think across the country, if you stand by the team as long as you can. Trust me, I’ve been a player, a coach and a manager, it is incredibly helpful if the crowd stay connected, it’s just something that I absolutely know to be true.
“The only thing I would say and you’ve witnessed it more than me, it’s been: ‘Yeah, get rid of them; no, get them in; boo get rid of them,’ and I said that after the Chelsea game that I didn’t want that. I’ve played my part to not let that happen.
“But there has been a kind of revolving door of that kind of process. The fans want someone in, they get them in; then they want them out; get them in; get them out, that is life in football, that’s part of it.
“I’m thankful for my part, when that revolving door looked like it was coming around again, and for whatever reason – you can’t define this, you don’t know for sure as a manager – they’ve decided to give me a break and the team a break and stand by us and it’s worked. They could have easily gone the other way, battered me, battered the team, we could have suffered and gone under but they haven’t and that’s what I respect and that’s why I thank them for it.
“The one thing I know for sure is that it’s easier to down tools in modern football than go ‘hang on a minute, let’s get behind them and let’s stick with them’ because of the bombardment of media and social media is negative. That’s a much harder thing to do, so that’s why I thank 40,000 people and the people who don’t come in the stadium because I meet a lot of people who can’t come to the games but they always tell me they’re right behind us.”
