Matt

I was trying to be a lot more calm in my post because there's no point debating with you, so I'm just asking questions. I'm really not looking for a fight mate. If I seem overly positive maybe because you're overly negative? I honestly try to see the positive where I can because there's enough shit in the world and with the club that I need to see light at the end of the tunnel. That's largely what drives me patience. No, I don't think he lost the squad. I think I underestimated the event and there was a falling out that was blown out of proportion. But back to back home wins with hard working performances tell me he didn't lose the dressing room, but he clearly fucked up. If he's been big enough to change in a way the squad have responded, then that shows me he is adaptable. Put it this way, we've had managers who would've just banished the dissenting players to the u21s or worse. Not sure I ever said we came back from the training trip a better squad, that would've been insane. The players absolutely deserve the credit for the change, but then they were also largely at fault for for the shite run we had, i.e the shit passing argument pointed at Dyche. Just curious, how do you see the next 6 months going at the club?

You think that's bad? We'll have half of them for next season if we're lucky and no budget to improve for a couple of windows. The thin squad is about to be turned into graphene. Just hope it's as tough and durable!

I'm shocked ...

Well your tone has gone from "hang him from his ginger bollocks, he's a bully, he's the worst" (paraphrasing, not looking for direct quotes) to patting him on the back for a job done after a couple of wins and saying he'll have done his job... But you're right, you're usually frustratingly stuck to your position don't get me wrong, this version of posting is a lot more desirable! Fair enough but that's more appealing to mercenaries, no? We've seen that enough over the last few years and that's more of a worrying proposition in my view; it's a large part of of the reason we are where we are. But we've done that part to death already. See, I do see us needing him for another 2-3 years, unfortunately. Not because I want him to even though I think he could do more and deserves that chance. There's so much still going on which is going to take a lot longer than 12-14 months. When I've done Continuous Excellence implementations, for example, the sponsors and board understood that to change mentality whilst rolling with life's punches was a 10-20 year project. Partly due to external factors, but mostly down to staff churn - very hard to change a mindset of a group if you keep chopping and changing the mission and staff, almost impossible if you're constantly switching the team lead.

https://www.evertoninthecommunity.org/news/2024/april/26/steve-morgan-foundation-2024/

Exactly. I'm thinking of Dyche as a more palatable and capable Fat Sam. Pure practicality to solve immediate issues, that's it. We don't know if Dyche can be more expansive because he's never had a budget or the squad. When he has he signed Defour, so I think he wants to be more than he is, he just sticks with what he knows for now because that's the best this squad is capable of since they've continually failed at the basics for large parts of the season (still an improvement on the previous 2 seasons!)

Everton 0 v 4 Brentford None

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-68901786 Speechless

I always laugh when you make his point. You're the poster with the most extreme posts in both ways, positive and critical, in my eyes He's absolutely a firefighter and the club is still on fire. Ironically, it's the only part of the club thats actually improved! I really don't see that settling next season or the season after after to be honest. With a change of owners coming, with a change of home, fire sale of the squad coming... I ask who, again, would be crazy enough and good enough to get this team performing better than a mid table club? I know you can't or don't want to name names but my point is that if you're so clear on the problems, I would assume there'd be some ideas about how or who to fix them would. I'm not aiming to dig or tease here. Genuinely curious to hear about alternatives as I keep hearing this complaint about things not being good enough but with no ideas on how to improve. Things like passing and finishing is 100% on the players, the manager isn't on the pitch and is putting tactics in place that has dramatically improved our defence whilst creating a lot more chances. I've no idea who does a better job with this squad in this situation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c90z9j0kkkjo

Been typing it for 30 minutes but kept getting interrupted, hadn't even seen yours

How is the ability of the international footballers to pass a ball on Dyche? Unless you think he's actively coaching them to be shit passers? You don't want him here, you've made that clear in pretty much every thread since December, don't remember much prior to that. Meanwhile, I think he's progressed us quite a bit, despite the turmoil around the club, and think he deserves a crack with better players. You haven't managed to convince me until now that there is a better solution, I don't see anything has changed except we won our first home Derby in 14 years, have kept 11 clean sheets, have the 4th best defensive record in the league and should be sitting on a minimum of 41 points. Comparing that versus the last 2 seasons with pretty much the same squad, arguably weaker, and all the noise, that's impressive. Far from good enough, but a massive positive trend. Realistically speaking there's 2 options for next season in my eyes: 1) PSR/FFP will continue to screw us over meaning the squad isn't going to be improved upon and, whilst it's mostly ugly, Dyche has got us progressing in the right direction during these very challenging circumstances. So why change? 2) We're somehow allowed to buy players but still have to be careful with spending, probably more bargain shopping as most sales profits will go to the books. Would you want a new manager in for that? Potentially and with good reasons. People (moreso than players I imagine) could say Dyche can't attract the players we want, let alone could potentially afford. But then who? I accept that we're still attractive with our history and the new stadium, but who takes us further than the last day relegation escapes to a midtable seaonal performance with less options and more pressure? I don't think we'd see this squad go on to a top 8 squad with anyone else, but who knows. Personally I don't think it's a gamble we need to take next season. I think, harsh as it is, that he gets 1 more season and if he doesn't improve further then we've a new manager for the new stadium. That's probably the best we can hope for with all things considered.

Expansive? Either way, he's never had a budget or squad capable of much more than we're seeing. I'm still curious.

Prime Iggy, absolute energizer bunny

https://youtu.be/V6vLFebIyrM?si=wo9Jg2fmA6gXHRnF 2 min highlights Don't worry I'll be posting every one I can find!

This has been my most popular post in 15 years which includes announcing my daughter 10 years ago

We did have months of dross. It's been a weird season; we had 10 games of UEFA level form and 15 of relegation form. But the goal for this season was improvement and stability. Dunno about the stability, but I still put most of that on the players. But 41 points is the minimum we should be on, a mid table performance after the previous 2 years is a massive achievement. Not been achieved in a pretty way, it's awful to watch for the most part. But we wanted safety before the last game of the season, we wanted an improvement on our league position and he's delivered that in spite of the worst the club has been in since Johnson days.

He's recovering from a serious injury though.