Sean Dyche has spoken of his delight that Jordan Pickford is set to commit his future to Everton and refused to be drawn on who is better between his current No.1 and former No.1 Nick Pope.
Pickford joined Everton from Sunderland for £30m in 2017 and has made 222 appearances for the Merseyside club. The 28-year-old was approaching the last 12 months of his contract.
However, as reported by the ECHO on Wednesday night, the England international now looks set to commit his long-term future to the Goodison Park club. It is also now being claimed that Pickford’s new deal will not include a relegation release clause.
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"I'm not bothered about release clauses - that's nothing to do with me. I'm more bothered about the fact he's a very good player,” Dyche said when asked about the deal and relegation release clause.
“A good servant to this football club and he's going to continue to be that, I'm sure. He's enjoying our new regime. He's accepting of what we're looking to offer. Any way we can help him to continue his development will be great.”
The Everton boss then added: "I'm three weeks in - it feels about 17 months. I'm still pretty new to it but we're assessing every [player's] situation, including Jordan's. We're ongoing, looking at all situations, because we want to make sure every good player stays here."
Dyche worked with Pope during their time together at Burnley - with the current Newcastle United star battling Pickford for the No.1 England spot. But when asked who the better goalkeeper is, Dyche replied: “Haha, yeah, good one!”
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