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Sean Dyche: Love is shown by telling the whole, brutal truth

Everton manager discusses concerns about the modern world, how he learnt of Everton’s points deduction and the health scare that led to him bingeing Game of Thrones

I’ve met quite a few politicians down the years but I think I can say — truthfully and without condescension — that nobody has more eloquently articulated the malaise in modern society than Sean Dyche. Across a flowing interview, we range across VAR, sin-bins, points deductions, head protocols, diving, 4-4-2, music, beer and the relative merits of Inspector Morse and The Sopranos — all of which I’ll come to — but it is on the terrain of politics that I am most transfixed by Dyche’s words.

We get there after a brief interlude on what may seem like an unrelated topic: love. What does it mean to care, to show compassion, to reveal empathy? Dyche offers his view by way of a story about his relationship (clearly a strong and loving one) with his father, a man who worked for British Steel and who, along with Dyche’s mother — a craftswoman who made shoes by hand — created a strong grounding for a young man full of ambition, passion and talent for football.

“I remember going over to France with Nottingham Forest when I was 16,” Dyche says. “I was a youth player and it was at the time my O-level results came out. I was quite bright but — like a lot of talented players back then — obsessed with football and didn’t put the hours in at school. So, frankly, I didn’t do that well in my exams. You can picture the scene. I am in an old-fashioned phone box in France, whacking coins into the slot, feeling very sorry for myself. I am blaming the teachers, the coaches, you name it. I am probably shedding a few tears, too.

“And Dad says, ‘Son, stop making excuses. Work harder. Don’t blame it on anyone else.’ That may sound hard but you know what? It was the truth. I didn’t feel a lack of love; quite the opposite. I thought, ‘It’s a fair point, Dad,’ even if I didn’t want to admit it.

“And I think love is shown by telling the truth. The whole truth. Sometimes, the brutal truth. Sure, you need to say it respectfully. Sometimes, you need to say it gently. But unless you are prepared to say it how it is, you are misleading someone. Maybe even lying to them. But this is the problem in the world today: people prefer perception over reality.

“I see this as a coach all the time. At an elite club, it is impossible for everyone to play in the first team. It is impossible for everyone to be the best in the world. And yet if you tell a player that they haven’t got a contract, instead of parents accepting your judgment, they say you are harming their kids. So you have to tell a weird version of the truth; you have got to sugarcoat it — ‘Yeah, you are good enough but we didn’t have quite enough room.’ It is madness.”

How did we arrive at this curious place, I ask? “I think the problem is that we put feelings above truth, perception above reality,” he says. “Maybe the internet has something to do with it. You have people who are famous on social media — influencers — even though they have no knowledge or talent. And people admire them because they have these huge followings. It worries me with two children. You have teenage people offering advice about psychology without any qualifications at all. And to keep their followers happy, they say whatever people want to hear. But sometimes people need to hear reality, not fluff.”

I should perhaps provide the footballing backdrop to this conversation. Everton, where Dyche has been manager for the past year or so, were handed a ten-point deduction in November for breaking financial rules, although the club are appealing against the verdict. The judgment has put enormous strain on Everton — the manager, the players, the fans — so I can’t help wondering how Dyche reacted to it. He grimaces. “I’m sitting in the bar having a beer with my mate and I get a message from Kevin Thelwell, the director of football, about half an hour before the news hit.

“‘Are you sitting down?’ he said.

I said, ‘What do you mean, am I sitting down?’

‘We’ve just been deducted ten points’.

‘You’ve got to be kidding’.

“He said, ‘Everyone is completely shocked. We just can’t believe it.’

I said, ‘You’ve got to immediately WhatsApp the players because it’s not fair that they read this on [the Sky Sports News] ticker tape or whatever. We need to control the message, keep it in the loop.’

“Then when the players returned from international break, I got them all into a room and put up the league table with the ten-point deduction. I said, ‘Here’s the league table. Here’s what it’s going to take. Here are the facts. This is our new goal. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes it’s a challenge. But we must not have any excuses.’ That is one thing that can be fatal for a football club: constantly making excuses. Not many of the players spoke up but elder statesmen like Seamus Coleman were fantastic. We just had to get on with it.”

We move on to the present state of the game and, again, I’m struck by Dyche’s honesty and insight. “It’s a great game, so many good things, but we are losing our soul,” he says. “There are eight billion people on the planet and four billion access the Premier League and yet they are seeing too much cheating. Why are Uefa and Fifa not dealing with this?

“I don’t have a problem with gamesmanship, where a player is clipped and they go down. That has always happened. But how it is right that someone goes down without any contact at all? How is it right that a player brushes another player’s head and they collapse as if they have been assaulted? That is black and white cheating. They are lying to try to get other players into trouble. Back in my day, we called it ungentlemanly conduct and we would sort it out among the players, but now it’s normal. A player who cheats will get back to the dressing room and people will say, ‘Well done, get in there.’

“In a way, it’s wrong to single out any one player because it happens all the time, but let me give one example. A couple of weeks ago, Ivan Toney moved the ball on a free kick when the ref wasn’t looking [for Brentford against Nottingham Forest] and scored. And you know what? The pundits said, ‘Oh, that was clever; that was smart.’ He was lauded. That is what’s wrong with football, right there. A billion kids are watching and thinking that it is clever to cheat, because that is what they are hearing from the people on TV.”

Would you be willing to call out a player in your team who dived, I wonder? “Yes, I’d say afterwards, ‘Lads, this isn’t the right thing to do.’ And it’s worth remembering that football has so many things going for it. The game has improved with sports science, technical skill, diet, you name it. It’s a fantastic spectacle in so many ways. If we could only rediscover mutual respect and that old-fashioned attitude of playing hard but fair it would be a better game.”

Dyche is also fascinating on head protocols. “Yeah, you have to put some rules in place because of brain injuries,” he says. “But they never consider the unintended consequences. They say that we need people to head the ball less, then they keep adding ten minutes to the end of games, and adding more games to the season, so people are heading the ball more often anyway.

“And what do you think happens in the last few minutes of games? Do you think they are passing it along the floor or are they loading the box? They are loading the box and guess what happens? More headers. Does anyone on these committees say, ‘Hang on, guys. We need to think this through.’”

What about sin-bins, I wonder? This time Dyche is laughing. “Only someone who doesn’t understand the game would come up with this. I mean, think about it. You ask someone to go and sit in a sin-bin for ten minutes and then run back onto the pitch and play elite football without a warm-up. Hamstrings will be torn, injuries will happen more often.

“And where are the players supposed to sit? What about the torrent of abuse from fans as they are sitting there? Are they going to give you headphones with fancy music to drown out the insults and an exercise bike so you can stay warm? Do me a favour. It’s completely impractical — as any manager will tell you.”

This is the lovely thing about Dyche: his unvarnished honesty, his straightforwardness. I ask him what he likes to do in the evening to wind down and, rather marvellously, he says that he loves beer and curry. He also talks about his passion for music and television, particularly shows like True Detective although I press the merits of Inspector Morse.

What is your favourite box set, I wonder? “Well, there’s a story,” he says, before recalling his time at Burnley. “I had my fourth back operation just after the pandemic and had a CSF leak [where a tear in the membranes surrounding the brain allows fluid to escape] after the operation. You could feel the fluid in my back: it was like half a tennis ball sticking out.

“We got to 39 points and played away at Bournemouth and I said to Woaney [Ian Woan, assistant manager], ‘Is the lump getting bigger?’ He said, ‘If it gets bigger, you’ve got to get off the pitch.’ Anyway, it got to the end of the match and I had to lie down for five days to let the fluid go back into my body and during that period, I watched the whole of Game of Thrones, start to finish. It was superb, if you like that sort of stuff.”

As the interview comes to an end, we discover that we love similar music and he mentions that his friend (the actress Vicky McClure) organises club events called Day Fever, where they play Eighties music for an older crowd at cool venues between 3pm and 8pm. So, when the season is over, we resolve to get together with our other halves for an afternoon of dancing before heading off for a curry and a few drinks. And I honestly can’t wait. Because Dyche, 52, is one of those rare people who combines fierce intelligence and a prodigious work rate with that sense of fun you so often see in the best leaders.

“Life’s an adventure and you have to approach it in the right spirit,” he says. It isn’t a bad summary of the philosophy of one of football’s most singular and impressive characters.

A game that we categorically had to win.

He gave us Young on the right.

I get he's the right manager for where we are as a club.

But I'm not having him.

Team selection was unforgivable, just can't he forgotten.

Anyone who thinks we are going to play anything resembling decent football under him in the future is deluded.

And by decent, I mean actual footballers with actual patterns of attacking play across the floor.

Literally has no clue when it comes to attacking play. Lump balls into the box and hope DCL gets on the end of it. Someone at the club needs to step up and sack him, we're relegated if not. I'd take anyone at the moment just for a positive bounce. Guy is a complete dinosaur.

Don't agree with sacking but he's nothing special as a manager. He's horrible in terms of the attacking side of the game. Went to the cup match against Luton and except for one last time to take in Goodison next season then I doubt I'll go again whilst he's here.

Shogun wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 9:37 pm Don't agree with sacking but he's nothing special as a manager. He's horrible in terms of the attacking side of the game. Went to the cup match against Luton and except for one last time to take in Goodison next season then I doubt I'll go again whilst he's here.

Don't see how we get out of relegation with him in charge. Would rather sack him and take chances on someone else to bring a little positivity.

Not sure what's happened to us. It's never been pretty, but first half of the season we were getting lots of attempts on goal and pressing like demons.

Not sure if confidence has evaporated, but you've simply got to offer more than ''Jordan and Tarks are going to smash long balls into the corners, and we'll see what we can pick up from there'' at this level. I'm not even sure that crap washes in the Championship anymore.

Bluedylan1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:01 pm Not sure what's happened to us. It's never been pretty, but first half of the season we were getting lots of attempts on goal and pressing like demons.

Not sure if confidence has evaporated, but you've simply got to offer more than ''Jordan and Tarks are going to smash long balls into the corners, and we'll see what we can pick up from there'' at this level. I'm not even sure that crap washes in the Championship anymore.

Definitely think as @TheRam said we look like we've been run in to the ground... There was so little energy tonight, pressing was minimal and we hardly won any second balls.

We've also missed Doucoure badly and whilst him being back is great it coincides with McNeil badly out of form and looking completely knackered (understandably given his personal situation).

I think if you stick our full strength team out on a pitch without half of them flagging we are horrible to play against... Today we weren't, in fact it was pretty easy for Palace who thankfully were just as shit as us.

Last season was our lowest ever points total (and PPG) at Goodison Park in the entire history of the club.

P19 W6 D3 L10 - 21 pts, PPG 1.10

This season:

P13 W3 D4 L6 - 13 pts, PPG 1.00

Not holding my breath for 9 points from our last 6 matches.

Shogun wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 9:31 pm Anyone who thinks we are going to play anything resembling decent football under him in the future is deluded.

And by decent, I mean actual footballers with actual patterns of attacking play across the floor.

We have played like this though.

I feel like when things aren’t going well he reverts to this type of football and it doesn’t work anymore.

Players have to take responsibility though.

Garner wasn’t interested in taking the ball off the back four. There was a huge difference when Onana came on.

McNeil was the same, always going backwards.

You need your players to put their foot on the ball and do something as well.

Tonight was poor but it wasn’t like what we’ve seen for most of the season.

TheRam wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:13 pm We have played like this though.

I feel like when things aren’t going well he reverts to this type of football and it doesn’t work anymore.

Players have to take responsibility though.

Garner wasn’t interested in taking the ball off the back four. There was a huge difference when Onana came on.

McNeil was the same, always going backwards.

You need your players to put their foot on the ball and do something as well.

Tonight was poor but it wasn’t like what we’ve seen for most of the season.

I don't think the football was 'good' even when it was 'good' though. We had structure, pressed high and played off the cuff in the forward areas if the ball was won. The only difference now is that the press has dropped off and he's starting a 38 year old on the wing.

I don't see how you can blame Garner or McNeil when it has to be the manager's instruction. There's no way he's watching Tarkowski and Pickford line up 60 yard diags for the entire match and isn't happy with it.

He's lost me I'm afraid.

Not advocating sacking him like, but that was dreadful.

There isn't a single thing that could come out of his mouth to justify picking a 39 year old to play on the wing in a game that was essentially a must win.

I like that Young gets a year older with every complaint

I meant to say a player in the 39th year of his life