Sean Dyche has spoken with staff within Everton’s academy amid efforts to create a thread of values that runs through the club following his appointment.
The Blues boss’ workload is currently dominated by engineering a route to survival with his side hovering just above the relegation zone with seven games to go. And he believes the nature of the Finch Farm setup is such that he would not seek to oversee it from the top in the future.
But Dyche has held a meeting with key figures and explained the principles he is trying to instil in the first team so those in charge of the age groups have a template to work to. And, while his exposure to the work of the academy has been limited to date, he has been impressed.
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Everton have embarked on an overhaul of the club’s wider football operation led by director of football Kevin Thelwell following his appointment in February of last year. Work behind the scenes has been overshadowed by the struggles of the first team during that period with Everton embroiled in a second consecutive fight for Premier League survival.
Against that backdrop former manager Frank Lampard was replaced earlier this year by Dyche, who has adopted different tactics - potentially impacting efforts that started with Lampard in charge to build a consistent playing style from the youth sides through to the first team.
Dyche said his conversations with academy staff to date had been about values rather than tactics, however. He explained: “I have spoken about the realignment that goes through it all… I have already had a meeting with all the academy staff just to share with them some thoughts. It is not the world according to me throughout the whole club but to share some thoughts on what I think is appropriate for the first team and how some of that can run through the younger age groups - mainly the values, not so much the playing styles but the values of the club, and they were very receptive to that.”
Lampard had a reputation for giving opportunities to youth prospects and gave first team debuts to Lewis Warrington, Isaac Price, Tom Cannon and Stanley Mills, promoting several to the first team training setup. Dyche has kept that door open since his arrival but, having inherited a relegation fight, has limited matchday opportunities. Against Fulham, U21s starlet Stanley Mills and 16-year-old defender Ishe Samuels-Smith became the first current academy players to make the bench in his 11 matches in charge.
When questioned about his credentials on youth development Dyche has pointed to his support for Dwight McNeil’s rise into the Burnley first team as a teenager and, more recently, the opportunities he has given to Ellis Simms. He has watched the U21s in action too, though first team coach Steve Stone has been to more of Paul Tait’s team’s games. In the long term he wants to develop the relationship with academy staff - but plans to leave them to do their job.
He said: “The way most Premier League clubs are structured now you can’t oversee all that. Burnley was different. It was a very small situation that grew so in the early days of that I was involved in putting the people in place in the academy - not necessarily running the academy but being in the interview process and meeting key figures of the academy as it grew. But then it was time that I stepped away and the people I put in place ran it.
"It’s different here, it’s up and running, it has got a lot of depth to it, it’s got a lot of good people working in it. So it is only to share a view to let them know who I am and let them know the door is open if they need me. They can just come in the canteen and just see me, there are no boundaries - it is all open house and we are all in it together.”
Dyche has been impressed with what he has seen so far, and enjoyed the academy day earlier this month - which saw teams in the age groups from U7s to U11s play with first team players. Dyche got involved, as did the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Demarai Gray and Tom Davies.
Of the importance of such experiences, Dyche said: “They were running around like kids themselves. It wasn’t so long ago that some of these players, the younger end of our element here - you look at [Amadou] Onana, he’s 21, it wasn’t that long ago when he was running around out there and some key players were turning up at his training sessions and as kids think that is amazing when that happens and they were full of it, it was brilliant, I really enjoyed it.”
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