Dyche conundrum, teenager calms adults, jury out on CL League Phase and more
10 thoughts from the week…
1.Sean of the dead man walking? Many Everton fans have turned, Dyche’s tactics and substitutions are being questioned, and an experienced, committed manager cannot afford another surrender, this time at Leicester City on Saturday. Otherwise all the jokes about Dyche living in “a two-up, three down” house really won’t be a laughing matter any longer. But the logic or likelihood of dismissing Dyche needs proper scrutiny. It is pointless Everton making any definitive call on Dyche’s future until the future of the club’s ownership itself is sorted out. And why would Farhad Moshiri commit to a substantial pay-off to a manager when he himself is on the way out? Leave it to the next man. And would any potential successor to Dyche, even someone who knows and loves the club like David Moyes, step into the breach now when he might not be the choice of the new owner? Everton are bedevilled with questions at the moment. Dyche needs to find some answers on the field at the King Power.
2.Parenting problems. A 15-year-old referee in a local Midlands league near me calmly took on some troublesome touchline parents recently. They were screaming abuse at each other as their offspring attempted to play a game of football. This teenaged ref saw it was ruining the occasion for the players, and spoke firmly to their parents, shaming them into silence. It worked. Good, strong refereeing from the youngest person present. The abuse staining grass-roots football is easily linked to all the dissent shown towards Premier League officials. Vitriol has become normalised. And it takes a brave 15-year-old to calm the adults down.