Sport
Why isn’t Sean Dyche in contention for bigger jobs?
In the end Crystal Palace looked elsewhere. Sean Dyche was on the club’s original shortlist as they sought a successor to Roy Hodgson but, after first trying and failing to entice Nuno Espirito Santo and Lucien Favre, Patrick Vieira looks set to be named as Palace’s new manager.
It is not clear whether the Burnley boss was ever offered the position but Dyche is definitely admired by the hierarchy at Selhurst Park. He was considered for the job in 2017, before Palace made the ill-fated decision to hire Frank de Boer. Dyche’s performance in the four years since then has only seen his stock move in one direction.
Palace ultimately opted for a very different manager in Vieira, even though the Frenchman cannot match Dyche’s track record of success in the Premier League. The Eagles are not the only ones to look elsewhere. Sean Dyche has barely been mentioned as a possible contender for the Everton job. West Ham United went for David Moyes as Manuel Pellegrini’s replacement in late 2019. Newcastle United chose Steve Bruce to follow Rafael Benitez.
Perhaps Dyche was not interested in any of these positions – including the one at Palace. He has spent nine years at Burnley and is undoubtedly the most important figure at a club he has built in his image. The Athletic reports that he has been offered a new five-year contract worth more than £5m per season. Burnley’s new ownership group, ALK Capital, recently agreed to spend £12m on Stoke defender Nathan Collins. More signings are expected this summer. By comparison, working under a sporting director at Palace might not appeal.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to picture Sean Dyche anywhere other than Burnley, even though it is bound to happen one day. That is in part a natural response to a tenure that began in 2012 and is now the third-longest in the Football League. But it is also a reflection of what Premier League chairmen are looking for in a manager in 2021.
Dyche has done a remarkable job at Burnley. He has twice led the Clarets to promotion and qualified the club for the Europa League in 2018. Despite having one of the smallest budgets in the top flight, Dyche’s side were barely mentioned as relegation candidates last season.
Yet despite his considerable accomplishments over a consistent period of time, the 50-year-old has not yet come close to being prised away from Turf Moor. That is largely because of Burnley’s style of play. The Clarets are an unapologetically direct team who had the lowest pass completion rate in the Premier League last season. Burnley like to get the ball forward quickly and, while that should not be mistaken for being dull to watch, it is not necessarily the approach that fans and owners want to see.
Sean Dyche is free to set up his team the way he sees fit, and it would be a risk to change a formula that has worked so well for almost a decade. But it is wrong to assume that he would naturally play a more expansive style if he had better players to work with. The likes of Graham Potter at Brighton & Hove Albion have demonstrated that bottom-half teams do not necessarily need to spurn possession and playing out from the back.
Potter, despite having achieved significantly less in the Premier League than Sean Dyche up to this point, has been spoken of as a potential contender for the Tottenham Hotspur job. Roberto Martinez, who also promoted a more proactive style, went from Wigan Athletic to Everton. Brendan Rodgers’ work at Swansea City led to his appointment at Liverpool. It is not unheard of for managers to make the leap from the division’s smaller clubs to some of its biggest.
With Dyche, though, it is hard to see that happening. That is no slight on his managerial ability, but it is the very approach that has worked wonders at Burnley that makes a move elsewhere unlikely. No one at Turf Moor will mind that very much.
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