Sean Dyche gives an unexpected message to 777 Partners.

In this week’s Royal Blue column, Chris Beesley examines what he believes could be a pivotal period for Sean Dyche with prospective Everton owners 777 Partners

As weeks go by, this has been a good one for Sean Dyche but these next two weekends now provide a platform for things to look even more positive in what could be a pivotal period for him at Everton and show prospective new owners 777 Partners what he’s capable of.

A highly experienced and proven manager at this level, having had Burnley punching above their weight on a relative shoestring budget for the best part of a decade, the 52-year-old is a master at keeping a level head while those around him sometimes lose theirs. Dyche learned a long time ago that in his position, he cannot afford to get too carried away on the emotional roller-coaster of individual results and he maintains that the only league table that matters is the final one.

However, he also acknowledges that – rightly so – the expectation levels at Everton, who have spent more seasons in the top flight than any other and a club who reminded us that they’re still the fourth most-successful in English football (well in terms of League Championships at least, for now) when announcing that Farhad Moshiri had agreed a deal to sell all of his 94.1% stake to 777 Partners, are higher than they were at the Clarets who have to operate in one of the smallest markets in the Premier League.

While those same expectations are still there, the Blues have just come off the back of the lowest equivalent points total in their 135-year history in the Football League/Premier League last term having come within one goal of their first relegation in 72 years. After survival was secured with a 1-0 win over Bournemouth on May 28, Dyche admitted: “It’s a big club, make no mistake. Big history, big club but we are not performing like a big club.

“We have to find a way of changing that. This is two seasons now.

“I’ve played my little part but there is massive amount of change to build to a new dawn, a new future, a bigger future if you like.”

After the unsustainable churn of eight incumbents in Goodison Park’s home dugout since Moshiri’s arrival, it’s crucial that whoever controls Everton, Dyche is shown the patience required to turn things around. After the heads fell off among a fair few web warriors following the defeat to Arsenal, producing murmurings about the latest man in the hot seat, the displays and victories at Brentford and Aston Villa – where the visitors were far more dominant than the final scoreline suggested and the manager made a point of saluting his team’s impressive away support both before and after the game – have cooled the situation and created a promising platform for the Blues gaffer to build upon.

How ironic that Everton’s first back-to-back away wins in the same week against Premier League opposition of the Moshiri regime came straight after the deal to end his chaotic and for a long time profligate reign was proclaimed and it took a manager he didn’t fancy to secure those results. Ever since he enticed Ronald Koeman to Goodison Park as his first managerial appointment in 2016 to compete against Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho in a region he dubbed “the new Hollywood of football,” to abandoning a pursuit to bring back David Moyes because Carlo Ancelotti had been sacked at Napoli, the Monaco-based businessman has been chasing the stars.

Such ostentatious ‘glamour’ doesn’t always sit well with Walton though and in many ways, Dyche – like the aforementioned Moyes who remained in charge for over 11 years, presiding over the most stable period at Everton during the Premier League era – is a former lower division centre-half rooted in the values of the British game and a much better fit for the football psyche required at the Blues. The ECHO understands that when it came to replacing Frank Lampard, Moshiri wanted Marcelo Bielsa but was dealt a major blow when the veteran Argentinian coach dubbed ‘El Loco’ rocked up at Heathrow Airport in January and proceeded to outline his plan to work with the club’s youngsters for the rest of the season before taking the reins in the summer, by which time they’d have surely been in the Championship.

Dyche has already spoken about his face-to-face talks with a 777 delegation at Finch Farm that included co-founder and managing partner Josh Wander plus Don Dransfield, the chief executive of their football group. Publicly, the Blues boss described the discussions as “very casual” and to get a feel for the challenges he has faced, but he’s been in the game long enough to understand that he’ll already be under intense scrutiny.

All managers are judged by results but managers facing the prospect of new owners at a club, tend to feel the glare of the spotlight even greater. Having been boosted by those back-to-back wins at Brentford and Aston Villa to kick-start Everton’s season, Dyche can now build on those results with a brace of home games against Luton Town and Bournemouth that appear to be enticing opportunities to secure a couple of more positive results before the next international break and let his team’s football do the talking.

After being forced to field fringe players and name incomplete benches of substitutes in the early weeks of the campaign, Dyche’s options are all of a sudden more plentiful and enticing. The increased strength of the squad was displayed through Everton being able to get themselves ahead before bringing on talents such as Ashley Young, Dwight McNeil, Beto, Idrissa Gueye and Abdoulaye Doucoure off the bench in the second.

Despite what looked like a solid pre-season with Dyche able to start implementing his methods further with the squad, until seven days ago, they had not been able to secure the results to match in competitive games. Now though there are signs of the end product that the manager and his backroom team have been working diligently upon to bring about.

777’s proposed takeover brings with it a multitude of new questions off the pitch but after back-to-back relegation fights, beleaguered Blues just want to be able to have a season without any more trauma. If those within Goodison Park’s corridors of power – both present and future – focus on financial matters and leave the football decisions to those who know, i.e. Dyche, then that’s Everton’s best bet to fulfilling the imperative demand for when they move into the new stadium and that’s remaining a Premier League club.