'People want the truth' - Sean Dyche tells Everton players they will not get him the sack

Sean Dyche has told his players he will not be their fall guy as the club fights again for Premier League survival.

The Blues boss held talks with his squad as part of efforts to address the dismal performance at Chelsea - a display he accepted was “miles” off the standards he expects.

Dyche said discussions turned to the churn of managers over recent years and told the players that if they were hoping they could inspire another change for an easier life: “I’m not that guy. I’m staying. I’m fighting.”

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Managerial chaos has characterised the reign of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. Dyche is the eighth Everton manager in eight years and several of those tenures ended with awful performances that made change feel inevitable. Dyche’s predecessor Frank Lampard left after a January that saw limp displays against West Ham United, Southampton and Brighton and Hove Albion. Lampard lasted just over a year - around twice as long as Rafa Benitez, whose own troubled period ended when the Blues lost at bottom of the table Norwich City.

Ahead of Everton’s match with relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, Dyche was asked whether there was a danger of the pattern continuing after the horror show at Stamford Bridge. He said: “It’s a fair question – and I have absolutely gone through this with the players. Is it now just a cycle that the club is in? Every year you want a new manager, you get a new manager, you get a bounce then six months later it’s: ‘Boo! We want him out!’ and you just keep doing that? Is that where we are at? I don’t mind telling you this because people want