Sean Dyche hopes to welcome former England rugby union head coach Eddie Jones and more Everton legends to Finch Farm as part of his mission to inspire and assess his squad.
Everton great Peter Reid attended the training complex this week to speak with players, offering them insight into life at the club, the relationship between the stars of his generation and the supporters, and his career. The invite was part of a two-way process Dyche adopted at Burnley whereby he could source "golden nuggets" of advice from sporting and business leaders while also getting their view on the mood of the dressing room.
Dyche extended the invitation to Graeme Sharp and said he hopes Joe Royle and Brian Kidd will also visit. Contacts he has made in basketball and American football could also form part of the initiative.
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For Dyche, icons such as Reid still offer valuable insight that modern players, as well as himself, can learn from. He explained: “I like the idea of the historic figures of the club being part of it still. Embracing the past and looking to the future. I like that with the famous 80s team, looking at the strength of it. The feel of it.
"I spoke to the players just casually - it is not about coaching or anything - but just to say come in and spend a bit of time. I know Reidy a little bit. You can get gold nuggets off these guys. They’re brilliant fellas... Old figures of the game have amazing knowledge. I am a massive fan of the old guard because there are some things in football that will never change. We have the modern stuff on top of that with the analytics team looking at the diets and everything. Everything is covered. I embrace the past and look to the future.
"The thing about football and football clubs now is there is a corporate element. We all know that. There is a glossiness. But there is still a core to a club which the older players may know more than a modern player. They can tell stories about how the fans used to interact with players.
"With Reidy it was just about coming in and having a cup of coffee to speak to the staff. Very casual. I asked Graeme Sharp as well, and hopefully big Joe Royle will, too. Brian Kidd is another. And other coaches. Hopefully Eddie Jones will come in. People I know in sport and business, just to get ideas.
"It is never wrong to speak to Peter Reid. If anyone asks who is that little fella there I will say he had a heart as big as a bison and he could play."
During his time out of the game following his departure from Burnley, Dyche visited businesses including KPMG as he sought to study team building and management structures. He also built relationships across the sporting world through the Leaders in Sport programme - including making contacts in the NFL and NBA that congratulated him upon his appointment as Everton boss last month.
He believes there is significant value in seeking their opinion on the make-up and mood of a training ground and squad - but only if he is confident they will tell him if they spot anything they think could improve.
Dyche explained: "Don't get people in who just say, 'great, it was a lovely day', but then don't say anything. I prefer people who I know are going to give me actual feedback. So therefore I invited them in. It's irrelevant who they are sometimes. Business people as well not just football people. I'll go would you pop in and they go 'yeah, sure' and speak to the staff, get a feeling.
"You just nick little golden nuggets from them and then make them part of your own. It's something I did at Burnley for many years, I want to bring it in here slowly and surely. It started with the obvious connection of the lads that played here because they get it. Reidy is still a massive Everton fan as well as being a legend. He is still there shouting and getting with the team, which I knew anyway. having known him a little bit.
"So that's just a more obvious one but there's lots of people who over time - got to get time of course by getting the job done - then they come in and go right, just wander round and get a feel of it... I remember Tony Smith, who was at Warrington Wolves at the time [when he attended Burnley's training]. He said a really good thing to me - and Stuart Pearce said the same - 'I know nothing about football but I know it's right here. I can just smell it in the air. It's right here'."
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