Everton fans are looking forward to a new chapter, after Sean Dyche was sacked earlier this week.
The Friedkin Group relieved Dyche of his duties on Thursday evening, just a few hours before the club’s FA Cup game with Peterborough United.
Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman took the team for that game, with the timing of the news coming as a real surprise to many.
The Friedkin Group are said to have felt Dyche had ‘given up’ at Everton, after he told them he felt he’d take the team as far as he could.
TFG then negotiated a severance package with Dyche.
By Saturday morning, Everton had confirmed David Moyes as their new manager.
For Alan Shearer though, the decision to sack Dyche is certainly a bold one.
- READ MORE: The public Sean Dyche comment that shocked the Everton dressing room days before his sacking
Alan Shearer claims Sean Dyche would have ‘guaranteed’ Premier League survival for Everton
It has been a long hard season so far for Everton fans.
The club are currently languishing down in 16th place in the table, and are just a point above 18th-placed Ipswich Town.
For most supporters, sticking with Dyche would have been asking for trouble.
But for Premier League legend Alan Shearer, doing that would actually have ‘guaranteed’ Everton’s survival.
Speaking on the Rest Is Football podcast, he said: “It was a bizarre situation (the timing of the sacking announcement).
“It’s a real gamble on Everton’s part, in the current situation that they’re in. It’s a massive gamble.
“Say what you want about the football that they played. It wasn’t a great watch and obviously they didn’t score very many goals. But there’s no doubt in my mind that the most important thing for Everton this season is staying up and I think he would have guaranteed that.
“Now, I think it’s a huge gamble. I think he deserves credit for what he’s done at a really, really difficult football club. It’s been a mess hasn’t it because of docked points, not being able to spend, not being able to bring in who or what they want, and having to go in a certain direction. I think he steadied that ship.”
Shearer also said David Moyes will have been given assurances about signing new players, otherwise he surely wouldn’t have agreed to return to Goodison Park.
Everton could not persist with Dyche
Many Everton fans will not agree with this claim by Shearer about Dyche at all, as performances have just been so poor this season.
Yes, Dyche has never been relegated as a manager before – although had he not been sacked by Burnley in April 2022, he very possibly would have one relegation on his CV.
Dyche has done well to keep Everton in the Premier League since he came in, as there have been lots of challenges.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 16 |  EvertonEverton | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 25 | -10 | 17 |
But had he remained, the club may have been at serious risk of being relegated.
The main reason for that is that Everton weren’t scoring goals under him – the toothless Toffees have only scored in three of their last 11 Premier League games.
Yes, the defence has been relatively solid and well organised. But if there’s no heat up top, then this is an unsustainable way of playing.
Everton have taken 17 points from their 19 games so far. In theory, if Dyche stayed and carried on with the same rate of acquiring points the club would finish on 34, which potentially wouldn’t be enough to ‘guarantee’ survival.
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