Ten Premier League clubs have chased the dollar this summer and included the US on their pre-season schedule. Three have headed east to Japan and, in Tottenham’s case, also to South Korea to satisfy demand to see Son Heung-min in the flesh. Six are utilising the altitude and training camps of Europe for their preparations, which leaves one doing it differently. Or, as Sean Dyche would put it, keeping things real.
Coventry’s Building Society Arena was the latest stop on Everton’s pre-season “tour” on Tuesday night, where Dyche’s team toiled badly in a 3-0 loss to the Championship club. It is three games without a win against lower league sides so far this summer. Their programme commenced with a 3-3 draw at Sligo Rovers that, after a training camp just outside Dublin, was primarily held to celebrate the career of Séamus Coleman – who cost £60,000 in 2009 – and raise funds for the full-back’s former club.
Last Saturday brought the short trip to Salford City and a 2-1 defeat at the Peninsula Stadium. Next up is Preston away before Everton end their pre-season fixtures with a home game against Roma on 10 August. In total, it is a tour of approximately 1,350 miles using Everton’s Finch Farm training base as the starting point to each friendly. And that is just how Dyche wants it.
Everton’s well-documented financial problems and ongoing uncertainty over the club’s ownership could be presented as reasons for being the only Premier League side not to venture as far as mainland Europe. Everton v Roma would have been a showcase of the two clubs owned by the Friedkin Group but for the unexpected collapse of the American company’s proposed takeover of the Toffees on 19 July.
The truth is more prosaic. Everton’s manager believes there is more value in maximising training time, limiting travel time and replicating the challenges of domestic football during pre-season than sampling the delights of California or Tokyo, however lucrative or appealing to the club’s wider fanbase that may be (there are almost 50 Everton supporters’ groups in the US, so the audience is out there). And Dyche gets the final say. This summer, as well as last, when pre-season included trips to Tranmere, Wigan, Bolton and Stoke, Everton’s small, interim board has more pressing concerns than global expansion, with a club to sell and a stunning new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock to complete.
Everton’s homely itinerary has given Dyche time to enhance his taskmaster reputation this summer, if that were possible. After daily double-training sessions at the Dublin camp there have been double, sometimes triple-training sessions at Finch Farm. His infamous “Gaffer’s Day” – when the players’ mental resilience is pushed to extremes with two hours of non-stop running drills while Dyche stands on the sidelines laughing – came with a twist last week. Having kept the squad on edge over when “Gaffer’s Day” would take place, he finally broke the news it was happening last Tuesday. An added bonus this year – but only for the Everton manager – was that the squad then had to do it all over again on the Thursday.
Everton trained on the morning of their friendlies against Sligo and Salford, offering a mitigating factor for their laboured displays. Dyche’s priority at this juncture is “getting the sharpness in them” and building fitness levels towards the first game of the new season against Brighton on 17 August. But while pre-season results are secondary, and six first-team regulars were missing at Coventry, the Everton manager was perturbed by what he witnessed on Tuesday. “Beyond the result, which is important by the way, we are trying to get players through these games,” he explained.
“We are trying to get minutes, we are trying not to break them because of the other injuries we have got. The only thing I am really disappointed in is you want players to come in and really lay down a marker. I don’t think we had too much of that. Forget about the result, you are still looking for that spark from players, and habits, and I thought the habits were miles off in the first half and most of the game, to be fair.”
Despite the gruelling nature of a Dyche pre-season there have been few complaints from his players about the workload, either at Everton or Burnley. Most recognise the long-term benefits. Standards have improved under him. So too did Everton’s injury record last season. His team were more durable and resilient, mentally and physically, as they withstood the unprecedented blows of two separate points deductions to secure Premier League safety with three matches to spare. There is something to be said for keeping things real, however unfashionable that seems.
