Everton takeover: Martin O'Neill agrees with Sean Dyche after 'hurtful' John Textor comment

Martin O’Neill agreed with Sean Dyche’s response to prospective owner John Textor’s comments over the Everton manager’s future.

Textor has been granted exclusivity to complete a purchase of the Blues from majority owner Farhad Moshiri. The American first has to sell his 45% stake in Crystal Palace although he claimed he’s more than 90% certain a deal will be struck. Everton have insisted ‘there remains some work to be done to complete the transaction’.

Textor gave an interview to Sky Sports on his plans for Everton and was asked about the future of Dyche. The ex-Burnley supremo has been in the Goodison Park hot seat since January 2023 and has successfully kept the Toffees in the Premier League under tight financial restrictions along with an eight-point deduction for breaching profit and sustainability rules last season.

Textor - who already owns French side Lyon, Brazil outfit Botafogo and Belgium club Morenbeek - suggested that he would hold talks with Dyche and see if he could deploy a different style of football should a takeover be completed. Textor said: "I'd sit down with him at some point in the future and say that I'm going to bring him a very different profile of player from any corner of the world and ask him if he is interested. I'd ask him if he could coach this squad.

"I like that he has bought the big, tough Irish kid Jake O'Brien but does he like [Botafogo forwards] Igor Jesus or Luis Henrique? Does he have an ambition to coach that sort of profile?”

In response, Dyche replied when previewing Everton’s trip to Aston Villa tomorrow: “I’d like to think over my years of manager, I’ve dealt with many different players and many different styles. It’s part of being a Premier League manager, I’ve done that for a number of years now. The variances are of what you’ve got, players you’ve got and the best you can use them and I’ve tried to adapt to whatever challenges I’ve had with the group of players I’ve been given.”

Former Nottingham Forest and Leicester City manager O’Neill was asked what he thought about Textor’s comments and Dyche’s response. And the Irishman reckons that Everton’s boss was correct in what he said over Textor’s ‘hurtful’ remark.

Speaking on talkSPORT, O’Neill said: “If I’d have been in Sean’s position, I’d have said the exact same thing. Those are really hurtful comments from someone who doesn’t actually own the football club yet.

“This is the whole point. I don’t know if he’ll be in there in a fortnight’s time or a couple of months - I know there’s this deadline of 30 November - but overall, yeah. Sean Dyche, with the respect to Everton, wouldn’t have survived last season had Sean Dyche not been at the club last season.

“They have got off to a poor start this season and managers come under pressure immediately. But comments like that are as if Sean Dyche is waiting for a 6ft 7inch centre-forward to play and hit them. It’s absolute nonsense. Would I have answered the question? Yeah, I would have wanted to answer that.”