Sean Dyche confirms Everton player sales 'truth' and reveals main aim for next season

Sean Dyche has insisted that Everton’s main aim for next season will be to safeguard the club.

The Toffees have had a rollercoaster 2023-24 campaign but have kept their Premier League status with aplomb. Despite being hit with an eight-point deduction for two breaches of financial rules, Everton have comfortably stayed in the top flight.

They’ve ended the season in terrific form, racking up a fifth successive home win as they beat Sheffield United 1-0 yesterday. Abdoulaye Doucoure netted the only goal to extended Everton’s unbeaten run to six games.

Heading into the final day, a trip to Arsenal next week, Everton would be 11th without their points deduction and would have a chance of a top-10 finish. Marked progress has been made after battling the drop in the previous two seasons.

Yet Dyche is not getting too far ahead. Everton remain in a perilous financial situation while their prospective 777 Partners takeover is on the brink of collapse. And he has stressed that ensuring that the club does not fall further into the mire.

The Everton boss said: “The bar for next season is making sure we safeguard this club in the Premier League. It hasn't really changed. There will be more challenges coming. I've tried to be honest with you, telling the fans the truth. It will not be fixed overnight. It is going to be a building process and it takes time. I think there is growth, from when I got in to where it is now.

“There has been development in the side and the players and the mentality for sure. But there is a long way to go to get it back to where Everton think they are. The perception is often bigger than the truth of the story, so I'm trying to find the gap between the two and bring it together so fans go 'OK, we kind of get where we are at'. I'm trying to do that but there are more challenges to come, I don't just mean financial, I mean balancing out the club, balancing out the playing side of things, balancing out the wage structure There are more challenges to come.”

Director of football Kevin Thelwell admitted on the eve of the Sheffield United encounter that Everton will have to sell players in the summer transfer window. Dyche confirmed that stance. He said: “Very likely. It's the current truth of the situation"