Season › 2024-25 › Opinion › Talking Points The deal with the Dyche devil by Kieran Kinsella | 18/08/2024 3 Comments [Jump to last] Mike Gaynes, who I generally agree with, absolved Sean Dyche of any responsibility for yesterday's loss to Brighton. In fairness, our geriatric right-back and defensive midfielder could have been expected to do better. Then we had our wantaway striker doing an embarrassing dive that technically should have stood for a penalty due to VAR rules but, being honest, it was never a penalty. Despite the dour performance, I feel confident we will survive because Dyche and his industrious approach to football has proven effective at just that: surviving. But as someone who made the point he’d never have good players, I’ll admit I’m disappointed. We cleverly manoeuvred in the transfer market to replace an energetic ego-maniac with two skilful Number 10s and then benched both in favour of a Carlton Palmer-style try-hard. Having gone down 2-0, we tried to close up shop; instead of bringing on a rough diamond from Lyon, we brought on a perennial failure to play alongside the equally inept Burnley old boy, Michael Keane, and unsurprisingly we conceded twice more though one was struck off. But this is where we are. We have a fireman Sam wannabe manager who can hide behind the obvious financial issues. Stubborn, non-reactive, and devoid of imagination – he is the poor man’s David Moyes. He will do just enough to keep us afloat and, when terrible results transform into a half-decent run, fans will hail him as a saviour. Article continues below video content But he’s not the guy for the long term. He’s not the guy to sneak a cup win, unearth youngsters, or develop tactical master plans. He’s dull, boring and unimaginative. He’s like the council health and safety officer. He will avoid catastrophe but ensure we have nothing to smile about. That’s the deal we’ve made with the devil, thanks to the missteps of Bill Kenwright, Farhad Moshiri, Marcel Brands etc. Return to Talking Points index : Add your Comments » Reader Comments (3) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer () Clive Rogers 1 Posted 18/08/2024 at 10:35:39 This is a good appraisal of our manager and the situation we are in. I couldn’t believe it in the close season when Young and Harrison were both offered another season after being two of the poorest performers last season. Young in particular gave goals, penalties and games away last season so yesterday’s performance was hardly a surprise. Giving him another year was simply jobs for the boys and was typical of the way the club is run. Thelwell as director of football should not have allowed it. Dave Williams 2 Posted 18/08/2024 at 10:44:45 If we had only brought in one new player he would have been complaining that a poor performance was to be expected and how could he be expected to work another miracle with only one new player. As it was we have signed four new players( excluding Jack who was already effectively here) and he only played one of them ! So he picks a team with a back four and a defensive midfielder,only one of whom is less than 31 years old and throws in another oldie at number ten who has been poor since his injury last season and is not a number ten. Two genuine number tens plus two genuine strikers were left on the bench until it was far too late to make any impact and even then two of the four new arrivals did not see any time on the pitch.To call for Dyche to go is way too premature but his team selection was bizarre - Thelwell will be wondering why he bothered trying to improve the squad if the manager doesn’t use them.I was there yesterday and thought the crowd was poor- no attempt to raise the team and as for walking out after an hour- the Palace game showed the folly in doing that. Tony Abrahams 3 Posted 18/08/2024 at 10:51:14 I beg to differ Kieran, simply because I believe that anyone who has been in football for most of their life, must have some good ideas, about how to play progressive, natural, interchangeable football, but I suppose it’s also very obvious that a lot of football managers have become multi-millionaires, by having enough knowledge and experience, to just keep a team in the top division.If the players we signed are not deemed ready then what does this say about the whole recruitment policy and the football club in general?Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away, and then the match started, or to be more specific, maybe it was when I got inside the ground and saw the team sheet. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. How to get rid of these ads and support TW © ToffeeWeb