John Textor would likely want to remove Sean Dyche from his post as Everton manager if the Eagle Football Group were able to secure ownership of the club.
Of course, this is speculation. Textor has not publically commented on any member of Everton staff as talks continue with owner Farhad Moshiri, but Textor’s past interviews and football philosophy strongly suggest Dyche’s future at Everton would be insecure if the takeaway was completed.
In recent interviews he has revealed his love for a ‘modern breed’ of manager that can set up a team to press intensely while managing players so that they can keep up with the physical demands for the entire game.
He favours a manager like Oliver Glasner at Palace, who he has revealed he would have signed at Lyon had he been able to speak French. Textor was the main force behind trying to appoint Glasner in 2023 before the club instead decided to offer Roy Hodgson a 12-month deal, a move that Textor did not agree with.
He told BBC: “Everybody knows I’ve been following Oliver Glasner around forever. I love him.
“Steve [Parish] met him independently and he made his own decision on Oliver Glasner. I’ll tell you why we liked him back from Lyon. If he spoke French he would be the coach of Lyon now.”
Textor then went on to explain why Sean Dyche and David Moyes – managers known for their old-style focus on defensive solidity and hard work – would not fit his vision for a successful football club.
He said of Glasner: “I think he’s a better fit for Palace. He’s part of the modern breed of managers that manage everything about the player, the body. He runs his players up to 120% of game intensity on a Wednesday and manages their recovery so they go into 90 minutes on a Saturday and they feel it’s a walk in the park. At the end of 90 minutes they want to play more.
“As far as his style of play, I thought it was the perfect match. Oliver’s theory is that he’d rather win the ball in their half.
“He will set a trap on the press and it’s not just one guy going, it’s not just two guys going, it’s five guys knowing they’re going to go and they’ll know what part of the pitch they’re going to expose. They’ll know where the vulnerability is.”
Textor is also not sentimential when it comes to appointing and firing managers. Laurent Blanc at Lyon was the choice of the outgoing chairman and it took just four games for Textor to remove him from his position. The short-lived reign of Gattuso was then followed by the appointment of relatively unknown youth manager Pierre Sage.
In fact, Eagle Football has boasted of the changes it has made to the football structure at Lyon. On its website it says of Lyon: “OLM has hired a new sporting director, head of scouting, and head coach in the past six months, changing the culture and trajectory of the team.”
It would be likely similar changes of culture would be implented at Everton if Textor was handed control. That may be some way off however, with his shares in Palace yet to be sold. L’Equipe reports he has three offers on the table but there have been no reports of these being accepted.
The report says: ”He has hired an investment bank for this, which has so far brought back three offers, but none of them come from his current partners at the London club, as the English press claims.”