Everton’s director of football, Kevin Thelwell, has asked supporters for their patience and their backing as Sean Dyche and his staff try and turn the team’s form around following a horrendous start to the season.
The Blues have lost all of their opening four Premier League games and exited the Carabao Cup in desperately disappointing fashion last Tuesday with a defeat on penalties to fellow strugglers, Southampton.
That has led to mounting frustration among the fanbase and growing concern at Dyche’s ability to arrest the bad run in the short term and take the Club forward beyond that.
Speaking with BBC Merseyside’s Giulia Bould, Thelwell gave a nod to the significant challenges the manager has faced in terms of a small squad, injuries and, recently, illness, but also urged fans to see the positives in the performances thus far despite the poor results.
“I can promise everybody that there is no stone being left unturned in terms of trying to rectify our current situation. [The manager] is working under very difficult circumstances.
“We still have ownership and financial situations to resolve so that makes it very difficult for a manager when we want to take that next step.
“It’s not easy [to stay calm] because we all get emotional, don’t we? It’s stressful and we all want Everton to be winning games. We’d much prefer to be at the other end of the table and chilling out, but that’s not our reality at the moment.
“So all you can do is you can just look back at your method and you look back at the analysis of some of the bits that you did and there’s obviously some bits that we’ve done well in these games and bits that we haven’t done so well. So we’re going to work as hard as we can to try and rectify those things as quickly as possible.
“Hopefully, [when the likes of Jarrad Branthwaite and Nathan Patterson return] we’ll see a difference in the results. Some of the performances have been good. I know people find it hard to look past those results but there’s actually been some positives in the games.
“I think one of the things we talked about last year was how we were finding it difficult in having an attacking threat but with Dwight [McNeil] moving centrally … and Iliman Ndiaye coming into the team, we look different from an attacking perspective.
“I appreciate, then, the bit that was so good for us last year, the defensive bit, now needs some resolution. So Sean and the coaching team will work hard on those problems and I’ll work as hard as I can with the support staff to support them to do that.”
Thelwell was asked what his message would be to Everton fans and he replied:
“Stick with us. I appreciate it’s a difficult time. We’re all feeling that pain that you’re feeling but we just need to stay calm and stay patient and we hope that we’re able to resolve some of these problems.
“I’ve said it before — what we’re all fighting for is a team that Evertonians can be proud of. I appreciate that only comes when you win, so we’ll work hard, as hard as we possibly can, to win but we’re also gonna need your help to get there.
“There’s no doubt about that, because off the pitch we have got some problems to solve. Everybody can see that and it’s still very, very difficult to work at this football club. And I appreciate it’s also very difficult to support this club in this moment in time. But we only get through this if we stick together.”