After ten months out of the game, Sean Dyche returned to football management this week when he was handed the Nottingham Forest job.
The role at the City Ground is Dyche’s fourth job in management and comes after he was dismissed at Everton back in January. His two-year stint with the Toffees saw him fighting against the drop amid financial issues at the club and a subsequent points deduction.
Dyche departed the club in January 2025 following a poor run of results, but the 54-year-old enjoyed plenty of high points during his time on Merseyside.
Sean Dyche on his Everton highlights
“The obvious game would be beating Liverpool in 2024 because that was so good for the people,” Dyche tells FourFourTwo. “Those derby games are for the fans.
“I didn’t grow up in the city so I don’t know about the depth of feeling, but I knew we had a bad record at Goodison against Liverpool, so it was nice for the supporters.”
That game saw Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin score to give the Toffees a 2-0 victory over their neighbours, their first at Goodison since October 2010. But there was another game which pipped even that.
“From a personal and professional point of view, it would be the last game of the 2022-23 season, when we beat Bournemouth 1-0 to stay up,” Dyche continues.
“We were down to brass tacks, injuries everywhere, had to change the system, going with a back three and playing wing-backs who weren’t wing-backs, we had no centre-forward so we played Demarai Gray there, and we had to win.
“From a management, staff, planning and player performance point of view, that one was the biggest and most enjoyable. We had eight days to get them ready, in one of the biggest games, for the wrong reasons, in the club’s recent history.
“Everybody was on us, doom and gloom everywhere – not from the fans, they were great – but we could have gone down and the media smelt a huge story.
“We worked all week and won 1-0.”
