Everton hires Dyche in bid to avoid relegation

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Everton has turned to Sean Dyche in its fight to secure Premier League survival.

The former Burnley manager was hired by Everton as the successor to Frank Lampard on Monday and has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract.

Dyche’s immediate priority is to avoid relegation after taking over a club that is second from the bottom of the standings and in danger of ending its 69-year stay in the top flight of English soccer.

“There is quality in this squad. But we have to make them shine,” Dyche said in the club's announcement. “That’s the job of me and my staff.”

It is Dyche’s first job since he was fired by Burnley last April. The 51-year-old manager spent just under 10 years at the Lancashire club, leading it to promotion to the Premier League in 2016.

Under Dyche, Burnley qualified for the Europa League in 2018 and remained in the top tier of English soccer until last season.

Dyche’s first game in charge will be against league leader Arsenal at Goodison Park on Saturday.

“We want to change the shape of this club going forward, remodel it in our style, but in a way that we can win,” he said. "That’s the task in front of us — make sure we’re building, tactically and technically, giving players organization, allow them the freedom to play, to go and enjoy their football because it’s brilliant when the team’s playing with a smile, but we’ve got to win.”

Dyche had been linked repeatedly with the Everton job in the past but looked set to miss out to former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa, who was the favorite to succeed Lampard.

However, on Friday it emerged that Bielsa would not take up the position after reportedly rejecting the job.

That left Dyche as the leading candidate to take over the storied club, which has won nine top-flight league titles but has not won a major trophy since lifting the FA Cup in 1995.

Under Lampard, Everton lost 11 of its last 14 games in all competitions this season, winning just one during that run.

Lampard was fired a week ago after the 2-0 loss to fellow struggler West Ham two days earlier.

Everton has endured managerial disruption since majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri took control of the club in 2016.

Club chairman Bill Kenwright said he spent “valuable time” with Dyche in recent days "and he quickly convinced me that he has exactly the right attributes to make himself a great Everton manager — and a man who could inspire our fanbase. And Farhad felt the same when he met him, too.”

Dyche is the latest manager to be charged with the responsibility of reversing its fortunes after the appointments of Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez and Lampard over the past seven years.

With the club set to move into a state-of-the-art new stadium next year, there are fears among fans that Everton could be a second-division team by then.

Dyche represents another shift in strategy by a club that has had two Champions League-winning managers in the last four years, in Ancelotti and Benitez.

Koeman went on to coach the Netherlands and Barcelona, while Silva was considered one of the most promising young managers in Europe before being fired by Everton. He is now restoring his reputation at Fulham, which is seventh in the Premier League.

Dyche’s Burnley repeatedly beat the odds by remaining in the top flight and finishing as high as seventh in 2018. However, the team was more renowned for its stubbornness than its attractive style of soccer.

“I know about Everton’s passionate fanbase and how precious this club is to them," Dyche said. “We’re ready to work and ready to give them what they want. That starts with sweat on the shirt, effort and getting back to some of the basic principles of what Everton Football Club has stood for for a long time.”

Dyche, meanwhile, is famed for his hoarse voice, which led to his former teammate Søren Andersen claiming in 2018 that he ate worms as a player.

Dyche later offered an explanation: “It was a bit of banter I used to have ... you get a nice, big, juicy worm hanging out of your mouth and then (look) as if you’re chewing it. For the record I definitely don’t eat worms and I never did.”

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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