Everton sack manager Sean Dyche ahead of FA Cup clash with Peterborough

Sean Dyche has been sacked as Everton manager, the club have announced.

The Toffees have won just one of their last 11 Premier League matches under Dyche.

Everton confirmed that under-18s head coach Leighton Baines and club captain Seamus Coleman would take charge of first-team affairs on an interim basis, starting with Thursday night’s FA Cup tie against Peterborough at Goodison Park.

The club’s new owners, the Friedkin Group, will now begin the hunt for Dyche’s successor, with former Chelsea and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho having already been linked with the position.

Dyche took charge at Everton in January 2023, having had a near 10-year stint as Burnley boss between October 2012 and April 2022.

The Toffees survived relegation at the end of the 2022-23 season by just two points.

Everton also overcame an eight-point penalty for breaches of the league’s profitability and sustainability rules to finish 15th last season.

Everton said members of Dyche’s backroom team Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer had also left the club.

Mourinho has emerged as an early contender to succeed Dyche. The Portuguese is currently with Turkish club Fenerbahce but has expressed interest in returning to the English game.

He also has experience of working with the Friedkin Group at Roma, although the Italian club sacked him just under a year ago.

David Moyes, who managed Everton between 2002 and 2013 before leaving to become Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Manchester United, has also been linked with a return to Goodison.

Dyche spoke about the speculation surrounding his position at a press conference on Wednesday.

“I think the noise has grown very powerful here. It does do,” he said.

“But we’ve had it before. We’ve had to push that away and move forward again. We’ll keep working with the group, keep reassuring, showing the good side of what we can do.

“The players haven’t lacked effort but it’s obviously affecting them because you can see it in their performances.

“I think down at Bournemouth we looked tight. We couldn’t really find anything that meant anything in the forward department.

“So we’re trying to open that up, give them the freedom to play. It’s a massive challenge.”