Sean Dyche shares private warning he gave Michael Keane at Everton

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Everton’s season thus far has been a strange one, truly impossible to predict.

After all, we are just eight games into the new Premier League campaign, and the Toffees have already been written off as relegation fodder, and now accepted as a comfortable mid-table outfit.

Such is the fickle nature of football, that same ever-changing attitude also applies to opinions on the players, with some like Abdoulaye Doucoure, Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford enjoying resurgences after a tough run of form.

One man in particular has caught the eye of his Everton manager though.

Sean Dyche shares private Michael Keane conversation

In comments relayed by the Liverpool ECHO, Dyche spoke after his side’s simple victory over Ipswich Town with a renewed sense of joy and relief.

After all, having lost their opening four games, pressure was building on his position.

Having since gone unbeaten in the following four, that has dissipated somewhat.

He spoke about Keane in particular during this interview, sharing exactly how and why the 31-year-old remains so trusted: ‘When he went away in the summer, I said: ‘Look, it’s not a done deal that centre halves play every game.’ I said: ‘Of course I’ve been loyal to the ones last season because I thought they were excellent for a large part of the season.’ But, I said, ‘come back fit’.

‘He came back as fit as I remember him, and I thought he worked really hard in pre-season. I thought all pre-season actually – during the pre-season games he was a solid performer. He hardly missed any – he got one knock and missed a game or came off and at Preston we looked after him.’

Another private conversation that was unveiled recently came when Dyche explained what he was informing Dwight McNeil that he needs to improve upon, despite his strong start.

Michael Keane is one of current Everton’s longest-serving players

It’s amazing to think that, aside from a select few players, Keane remains one of Everton’s longest-serving present-day assets.

After all, he was signed all the way back in 2017 for a club record equalling £30m fee, as part of Ronald Koeman’s perceived revolution.

221 appearances later and he remains, albeit having endured a tumultuous tenure at Goodison Park laden with impressive spells of form, some stunning goals, but equally some really dramatic errors too.

Jordan Pickford was also acquired during that same summer, but just shy of a month earlier, whilst Dominic Calvert-Lewin moved to Merseyside in 2016.

Naturally, none of these even come close to Seamus Coleman, who has amassed 424 appearances in royal blue since joining in 2009.

Idrissa Gana Gueye is the only other competitor to Keane’s longevity, and even he had to take a three-year hiatus, first joining in 2016, then leaving for Paris Saint-German, before then returning in 2022.