Some were expecting that the new owners would take decisive action as soon as they finally took the reins in control of the club, with the final handover of the new stadium coming soon after. The long-awaited Good News on both fronts was seen to signal a hitherto unprecedented prospect for complete renewal at the club, with the new owners embracing its age-old motto: Nil satis nisi optimum.
But calmer heads recognized that the new owners were unlikely to be as reactive as many of the fans, with a number of reasons being cited for keeping the manager on, at least through the first weeks of the ownership transition, and possibly through to the end of the transfer window, even if the current poor set of results fails to improve.
There is an argument that Dyche is just the man to help Everton climb away from the bottom of the Premier League table – just as he did last season under the execrable conditions of two points deductions. Following that logic, it might be argued that he should be kept on until the end of the season, when his current contract conveniently expires. But would reliance on the miracle of another escape for a third successive season not be tempting fate?
But nothing is certain in football, and Dyche’s biggest failure has been in terms of getting his players to score goals to at least give them a chance of winning games, rather than battling on the back foot to try and secure a point from a goalless draw by preventing the other team from scoring, as seemed the case again on Saturday at Dean Court before Brooks scored his volleyed winner in the last quarter of the game.
A chance for temporary redemption comes next week in the form of a 3rd Round FA Cup tie at home to Peterborough United and a chance to change the darkening mood with a rare win. But the BBC have moved the game to Thursday night (albeit only on the iPlayer) with the prospect of a giant-killing embarrassment in what would then be the final FA Cup game ever at Goodison Park. Surely if that were to happen the backlash against Dyche and his Finch Farm crew would become overwhelming?