Dyche appointed manager at Nottingham Forest

He had his moments with us, but he was responsible for some of the worst football I have seen in 70 years as a supporter.

A match made in Hell.

Well only from a distance: kick into their half and see if you can get it back.

Is that why he is going to Nottm Forest?

Nothing like the last two seasons.

It seems that soccer has a job for everyone, don't knock Dyche he had his strengths and weaknesses.

I like the fella but not his football that Evertonians were never going to settle for.

You always pass failure on the way to success!

Will he get them out of the woods?

Sorry, guys....

Does that mean Ange got it the wrong way around?

Dyche is smart. He'll convince everyone at Forest that they're going down and the problem is the defence, the team's fitness, their snoods, and anything else that he's comfortable dealing with.

Then he'll focus on those things and they'll avoid relegation. He'll be declared a miracle worker by some.

It wouldn't surprise me to see him surprise a few people and I'm sure working for the Big Greek Owner should be a piece of piss after managing Everton in such horrific circumstances.

It shouldn't take us long to find out.

Ange is apparently going home to Australia, £7M richer, for less than 2 months work. I know what you meant, Ernie, but there's nothing silly about anyone who can find himself that kind of gig.

I guess we'll never truly know how much of a shit-show the club was at the time.

It will be interesting if he doesn't hit the ground running as he could be out by Christmas given the way the owner reacts to defeats.

Good luck to him. He kept us up.

I think he'll do well.

He did a fantastic job here, no money to spend, points deduction and boardroom mayhem, and he still kept us up.

I wish him luck with Forest, although being in Europe will be a handicap with those extra games... and that luck doesn't extend to when he plays us!

It took a Doucoure rocket, and a Bournemouth player to put his shot late into injury time straight at Pickford. Either side of him and it's a goal and we're down. Plus the football was bloody awful.

It was like a lot of people were just preparing themselves slowly for it; that was the only real topic of conversation walking along County Road.

There were enough games left when Dyche got the job but he came into one holy shit-show of a football club and my own opinion is that it was an absolute miracle that Everton never got relegated that season.

I would say someone like Eddie Howe -- who went to Newcastle when they were rock bottom, but got them mid-table in half a season -- kept his club up.

And getting £50M for Onana.

I agree John, and with 30 games left in the season, he his actually inheriting a team, that are only two wins away from mid-table Everton.

It will be interesting. Can the Leapord change his spots, and pull himself out of the box, that most people associate him with, or will he prove to be no more than the fire fighter, most people believe him to be?

I watched Dyche’s first interview yesterday, and he looked very relaxed and happy to be around people he already knew, whereas I don’t believe he was ever allowed to relax and get out of his comfort Zone, at Everton.

It looks like he has got one of his old mates back into the backroom staff, and this might also make a difference. Woan, is a lovely fella, Stone, is a little bit more reserved, and it was interesting to see that Burnley, really dipped when Tony Loughlan, left, and if he’s still the same way that I remember, then he might be the one who has a laugh and a joke, which might just take the pressure off everyone just a little bit?

I hope for nothing but the best for the man.

The sit deep style from Nuno suits the players and Dyche so I expect them to start winning games. Even against Chelsea they could have been 2 up only for poor finishing.

It was turgid to watch but Dyche deserves massive credit for keeping us in the league.

Good luck to him though I am sure he will get sacked in the summer and walk off a lot wealthier for it.

All credit to him and he was certainly the right man at the right time with his big shoulders and thick skin a clear asset.

However like Paul I think the 'he saved us from relegation ' narrative from the first season is questionable. By this time of that campaign we had 10 points and sitting in 11th. Before Lampard went on that terrible run of eight games, where he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights and players seemed to have lost direction and organisation we were well away from danger.

Sean came in and got a quick bounce as most managers would and by March we were n 15th and looking like we were going to be clear of a relegation fight. However Sean brought in a really underperforming, devoid of confidence Keane and moreover stuck with him when we once again began conceding like confetti. It wasn't until he dropped him and brought back the likes of Mina and Coady that our form turned and we escaped.

In essence I feel Sean did the hard part, then actually put us in danger. The jeopardy and euphoria of that last game no doubt solidifies the narrative but I feel the reality is he achieved what he set out to do but so he should have.

It will be an interesting watch at Forest because he has always argued his style or lack of it was based on quality. He hasn't got that excuse now.

There was a real or perceived existential threat to continued existence plus ongoing concern over points penalties, appeals, lawsuits being threatened from various clubs. All “noise” that would unsettle anyone in any walk of life.

Imagine going to work every day and press asking “Is this business going to go bankrupt next month? Are you going to have to sell off your last few assets? Are you going to be sacked? Did you know the prospective new owners allegedly are running a Ponzi scheme? etc etc.”

That's a whole other level of stress to deal with, not just for Dyche but in his capacity as boss having coaches and staff (not just high profile ones bet lesser paid ones) anxious about job security. Players unsettled, interacting with clerks and tea ladies looking at you like their future employment is somehow down to you magically turning a profit and staying in the Premier League. It would have been an absolute nightmare work environment but he handled it incredibly well.

I feel his limitations as a coach were eventually exposed, but that's only because he did well enough to keep the ship afloat long enough that we could then look at more mundane things like formations and tactics instead of wondering “Will we have a team next season?”

And last season, we went 11 games without a win, and didn't score in 9 of them. Terrible manager.

In other words, we would face bankruptcy if relegated.

The following season, we faced two points deductions, the board disappeared and left Dyche as the voice of the club and fans. For all his limitations, he showed great leadership in rallying the squad to outperform their ability.

He was glad to go in the end, and most fans agreed that it was time for him to move on.

Rather than criticise him, build him a statue as he is the main reason the club survived at all.

Dyche has a chance to prove himself now and I'm personally going to be very interested to see if he's got the talent to do so.

Sean Dyche performed miracles that season. We were at a point of maximum peril and he steered us through it.

Good luck to him at Nottm Forest.

How could we ever forget!

He will always have my respect, he even knew when to leave as he basically admitted he could no longer get a tune out of that squad last season, like many other realistic Evertonians. I wish him well.

Must be all that rubbing snot up his forehead that keeps his sinuses clear.

But it was the right time to replace him with Moyes because it was clear that the new owners had no intention to extend his contract in the new stadium; the players knew that so they stopped fighting for him, and change became inevitable.

I had hoped that he would continue till the end of the season so that he could have left with his head held high, but circumstances were too much against him.

The best Everton played under him was the 87 minutes against Bournemouth when we were leading 2-0 and Calvert-Lewin should really have scored 2 more, but the collapse in the last 5 minutes was one of the most traumatic I have experienced in my Everton following career.

That really shattered Dyche's confidence and he reverted to his ‘defend at all costs' mentality.

I wish him all the best in his Nottingham Forest career (coincidentally where he started as a youth footballer under Clough). He might surprise a few pundits, but his owner is more crazy than any he has dealt with in his career, so good luck to him.

I agree with both you and Tony that he took over the most precarious of positions of any manager but I can't agree that it was some sort of miracle. I wasn't criticising Sean, he achieved what he had set out to do and for that we are all thankful. I thought he had a weaker squad the following season as well as all the shit he had to deal and for me that was a herculean achievement

But you are suggesting we should build a statue for him based on that season. Do you feel the same about Lampard the season before?

My view all throughout that season was that we would stay up. For me when we appointed Sean I was even more so. After 13 games we had 14 points and conceded only 12 goals. We also had won both cup games. We took only 1 point from the next 7 and shipped 16. There were lots of bad sides in the division, he had plenty of time and it was very obvious to see what area needed correcting.

Sean took 21 points from the remaining 18 games. Lampard the season before took 20 points from 18 and we were safe by the last game (which we lost) yet Lampard didn't have the immediate impact.

I think both managers can look on their roles those seasons with pride but I would have been disappointed at the time of their appointments had either failed to keep us up (in terms of what was achievable). Lampard had the luxury of not being Benitez while Dyche could address a glaring weakness.

My opinion of that season was not an attempt at criticism or ingratitude but more a belief of what I would have expected.

Luton made a fist of it for a while, spurred on by our initial points deduction. Although they were poor at Goodison in the FA Cup game, they ended up winning; that was because Everton were even poorer and lacked the quality to dispose of a very workmanlike team.

I actually thought Luton had a chance of staying up after I watched that game. Although they had very little quality, the players all worked very hard for each other. But, once they went down, they got relegated again, and probably because a lot of their 'Championship at best' squad had physically destroyed themselves by giving everything to try and stay in the Premier League.

Dyche was underachieving massively last season. If it was true that he told TFG he could take us no further, then he either couldn't wait to leave or the job had just taken too much out of him. My guess would be that it was probably both.

I wish him well at Forest unless we end up fighting with them against relegation. He will get a warm reception when he comes to BMD with Forest.

What we got was a miserable, negative, dour, gaslighting manager who enjoyed playing us down. A manager who revelled in the misery. He loved to peddle the message that EFC was broken and he was the glue.

His football was simply ugly & horrendous.

I was glad to see the back of Mr sniffy and all his talk of "noise" and smell.

The best thing about Dyche was when he arrived at his pressers, constantly touching and sniffing his nose like had just done a 10m line of coke. Then watched how he systematically sucked the life and energy out of the room with his negativity. A presser with Dyche was like the Nazis opening the ark in Indiana Jones.

I was "unhappy" with the appointment of Dyche as manager of our club.

But he was on a free and we were staring down the barrel of the relegation gun and Dyche delivered when it mattered most.

I know some play down his role but, for me, he kept Everton in the Premier League.

He kept us up: somehow he manufactured goals and won enough points.

The following season, we had points deductions that kept changing and again more takeover nonsense from 777 Partners. Once again, no board members to actually help out. Despite that quagmire of crap, he kept us up.

If we'd have gone down, no way would we have the owners we have now. Dyche did an ugly but brilliant job when we were at our all-time lowest.

He has nothing but my respect.

It was absolutely evident how much they missed Elanga in the Chelsea game.

I'm sure Onana was glad to get away from him and go and play for a team with a manager who plays decent football and doesn't have to watch the ball sailing over his head.

Connor, agreed, if Dyche deserves credit then so does Lampard. I'm made up for him, he's got Coventry playing some exciting football and scoring bags of goals. I always liked Frank, maybe we got him too early...

The 2nd season with the points deduction, the toxic boardroom, no money to spend, limited squad, he did a superb job, and the fans to keep us up.

Does he not deserve credit for that?

Even now, I can't imagine what it must have been like to be Everton manager when the Spring rolled around with that pressure on him. Cos it wasn't just relegation that was the problem, we were going out of business with a half-built stadium on the Docks.

Some days you don't feel like going to work... imagine if work was going to Goodison Park with that squad, to take on Chelsea, knowing you needed 3 points?

And in hindsight, even his last action was a favour. He could have done a Lampard, worn his beanie hat, looking miserable, just waiting for the push. But no, he took the initiative whilst there was still time, and said "I've done all I can do, I want my pay off (only 6 months) but you need to find someone else."

It was the season of maximum peril for us as a club, so I am really grateful to him.

I was watching a little WhatsApp video the other day with Harry Redknapp talking about how hard the young Frank Lampard worked to make himself the best player he could possibly be.

He took a lot of stick in his early days, especially from his own West Ham fans who didn't really rate him and probably thought nepotism was at work.

Maybe it was? But Lampard's dedication and also his commitment to hard work to make himself a much better player paid off, so maybe something similar is going to happen now he's become a football manager?

A lot of ex-players have a go, find out how hard it is, and find much easier ways to stay in the game and make money, or even just simply walk away. Frank Lampard is different: he has simply kept coming back for more and now he's dropped down a division to learn his trade. He seems to be getting results.

Managing England would probably be his dream job but it would be interesting to hear him speak about which club side he would love to manage and give the supporters success.

Under Lampard the season before, we were always hovering outside or just in it. The season we had the point deductions under Dyche, we won games straight after those (hence Paul's points about the 4-month gap for a win).

But my point about Sean's first season was that, after his initial impact of 12 points from 9 games, we were 15th and looking safe. We played 5 decent enough fixtures in Palace, Man Utd, Leeds Utd, Newcastle Utd and Wolves, only taking 2 points.

We therefore ended back in 19th where we started under Sean. He eventually took Keane out of the team and we got 7 points from the last four.

My personal view is that, had we had 9 draws from those last 9 games (a point a game) then despite getting to the same result, the narrative that Sean performed a miracle would not exist.

I think because we seemed down with four games to go that his was a 'miracle' whereas Lampard 'did what was expected'.

Dyche came into the club just after the very inept board of jokers who filled the Directors Box had told a complete pack of lies and the whole club did appear to be broken when Dyche arrived.

Seriously, I would walk along County Road after each game and the general consensus was that we were playing that badly and the club had got to a point that we had no direction whatsoever, except a route towards the Championship.

It doesn't matter to me anymore. I will always believe that this was our greatest escape and that Dyche deserves a lot of credit for it but, instead of arguing about the past, I'd sooner wait and see if Dyche has got more in his locker than to just be remembered as a negative firefighter.

I wish him luck, and believe that, if he's given the players, then his greatest strength might just be that he will hopefully keep things very simple; we will see?

Maybe that's just making excuses for Dyche but, after starting the season absolutely abysmally, the team were starting to pick up a few good results and beginning to relax and play without pressure for the first time since Ancelotti had left us. But then the pressure was put right back on by losing those 10 points.

I still never thought we were in real trouble that season (once we quickly clawed those 12 points back) because of how poor the Bottom 3 teams were. During his last season, our football became very negative and horrible to watch, and I'm sure this won't be lost on him.

Moyes won a trophy for West Ham (even a second rate trophy should be cherished by a set of fans who hadn't seen the club win a cup for over 40 years) but, because his football wasn't really that entertaining, a lot of Hammers fans wanted him gone.

If he can't get his team to entertain the Forest fans, then I expect Dyche to have a similar problem at Forest. This is why I'm genuinely intrigued to see if he's actually got the football nouse to be able to do this.

I'm watching the Forest game now and I don't think Dyche had this much luck in the whole time he was at Everton. Two penalties in his favour and an equalising goal ruled out for offside.

On the 4 month wait Tony agreed.

Remember Lampard's last game? Moshiri actually saying it wasn't his decision whether the manager kept his job, when he was interviewed right after the game? The club was rudderless, and those shameful bastards in the Directors Box were making a holy show of both themselves and every single Evertonian (see what I've done there? Wait for the response!) by continuing to watch our away games whilst staying away from Goodison Park.

Imagine coming into that kind of an environment? It was absolutely disgusting, and one of the reasons why I sometimes can't believe how we have kept our Premier League status.

He had his moments at Everton but did his best in difficult circumstances with shit owners and kept us in the Premier League.

I'll order you some brackets ()...so from now on so you can insert (except Conor) where you see fit.

I will just say that Wood and he are a dangerous duo. That squad suits them well.

He will do the job at Forest.

However, I occasionally catch him on his show on TalkSport, he has an amusing but sometimes irritating tendency to rewrite footballing history and his place in it. I find myself quickly switching off if I unintentionally tune in to him prattling on about his ‘achievements'. Sorry, Sean... I've got things to do.

I don't think managing under that madman at Forest will present a particular challenge, in fact, I think he'll relish it. His biggest task will be convincing the Forest supporters that he can develop a style of play beyond the grim, safety-first, turgid fayre that he served up here and at Burnley. Sean claims that, with better resources and the right environment, he can get his teams playing better football. Well, here's his chance to prove that's not a fairytale.

He's got a squad full of players used to something like his counter-attacking approach and European football to boot. It's a great opportunity for him. It will be interesting, this one. If it doesn't work out, though, he will ensure everyone knows it wasn't his fault.