For the average Premier League fanatic, it would seem counterintuitive for Sean Dyche, a
coach with as much experience as anyone when it comes to a relegation fight, to be relieved
from his duties as manager of Everton Football Club.

The way he was let go was rough, with the Friedkin Group sacking him just a couple hours
before Everton’s FA Cup match against Peterborough while putting Séamus Coleman and
Leighton Baines in charge of the first team for that match.

When the news broke of Sean Dyche’s sacking, many mainstream fans not familiar with the
state of Everton FC were confused with the decision. Dyche has been a bit of a cult hero due to
his seemingly innate ability to keep relegation candidates up. He did it with Burnley and recently
with Everton.

However, most Evertonians have a contrasting opinion on Dyche’s sacking.

James Boyman is one of the most recognizable personas in the American Everton community,
which led him to meeting Everton and U.S soccer legend Tim Howard at Goodison Park and
later interviewing him on the American Toffee Podcast, which has now transformed to the Blue
Frontier. For him, this move by the Friedkin Group was the right one considering the
circumstances.

“I've seen a lot of people shocked by this move, and I think it comes from the fact that most of
the football media are not watching Everton on a regular basis, and also that they have a
preconceived notion of who Sean Dyche is in the sense that he's the guy you want to have
managing your club in a relegation fight,” Boyman said. “While I think Sean Dyche deserves a
ton of credit, and I could not be more appreciative of what the job he did over the last couple
seasons keeping us safe, Everton were on a fast track to relegation under him (this season).”

Everton did better than many people expected last season with 40 points, an amount even more
impressive considering the points deduction that was handed to them. Some of this success
must be attributed to Sean Dyche, who made sure his team was defensively stable throughout
the entire system. And while they scored enough goals to keep pace, the underlying offensive
numbers were not impressive.

“The team regressed in a lot of different respects from last season to this season. Lots (of
comments) have been made of the open play goal statistic, how few (goals) Everton have
scored in combination last season and this season,” Boyman said. “What (the media) don't talk
about is, Everton were scoring a lot from set pieces last year; while we have scored a lot of
goals from set pieces this year, (it’s) not nearly at the same clip or conversion rate as we were in
seasons past. So the goal scoring across the board was absolutely brutal to watch.”

It was also clear for anyone watching Everton that Sean Dyche’s squad was not pressing as
effectively as they were last season. Rather, they’ve been sitting deeper and deeper inside their
own half of the field, which is a brand of football that most fans do not want to see. And with the
team sitting barely above the relegation line, the new owners of Everton have decided to usher
in a new era at Everton.

But before it could even start, Everton had to get through an FA Cup match against
Peterborough, and much to Everton fan’s delight, two Everton legends would be coaching the
team past the League One side.

“It was incredible seeing Baines and Coleman. I mean, are you kidding me? Those are the guys
who were the fullback pairing when I first started watching Everton. There's an incredibly good
feeling about seeing those guys who are beloved and were some of Everton's best players ever
in the Premier League era leading the club out and on the touchline,” Boyman said. “Beautiful
scenes, and something that I'll remember forever, like a really magical moment, and the fact that
we got the win was wonderful.”

A 2-0 win was enough to see Everton enter the next round of the FA Cup, and for one match,
Everton fans were able to fall in love with the team they once knew, almost as if a difficult page
in the chapter of the team’s history was closed and a new entry was being written in real time.
Only time will tell if this move by the Friedkin Group to sack Sean Dyche was the correct one,
but with a familiar face coming back to lead the helm, there’s a reason to be optimistic about
Everton Football Club again