‘The owner, the chairman’ - Sean Dyche lifts lid on lack of Everton deadline day transfers

Sean Dyche has responded to Everton’s lack of transfer business on deadline day.

The newly-appointed manager addressed the media for the first time ahead of Saturday’s clash against Arsenal (12.30 GMT).

Everton sit 19th in the Premier League table and were desperate for attacking reinforcements, having scored just 15 goals in 20 games.

But no fresh faces arrived on deadline day despite a raft of players being linked. What’s more, the Toffees squad is now weaker with Anthony Gordon being sold to Newcastle United.

Dyche insisted that everyone behind the scenes worked hard in the closing stages of the window - including director of football Kevin Thelwell, majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright.

Some deals did not ‘align’ in the right way to be completed, while Dyche suggested he wasn’t prepared to bring in certain players who would not improve Everton.

Dyche said “Firstly, one thing I can assure you, I managed to get in here Saturday so I can only tell you what I know from being here, all I’ve seen is hard work.

“That’s all I’ve seen so far - particularly in the recruitment area because we know the window was what it was. The owner, the chairman, Kev, myself. I’ve been leaving here late at night, Kev on the phone constantly, the owner, the chairman on the phone constantly.

“I can assure you, I was there. I physically saw it all, so there’s absolutely been hard work. A couple of things about the playing options is first of all you’ve got to align them.

“I’ve said for many, many years with my Premier League experience, all parties have to say yes, we all know that. You’ve got to get to that situation, you need the finance in place to make those situations happen. We all know that.

“Likewise, the thing I think often gets overlooked is they’ve got to be better than what we’ve got here and I think we’ve got some very, very good players here. Some very talented players.

“They may have lost their way, we can all have debates on why things are not where they should be or whatever but there are some very talented players here. I’m not one for signing players for the sake of signing them.”