Sean Dyche welcomes ‘clarity’ after Everton were handed back four points following deduction and backs players to move on – but admits ‘you are always greedy and want more’ with six points still docked

Sean Dyche says Everton and the rest of the football world have finally received clarity and can move forward after the club were awarded four points out of 10 deducted for financial breaches in the appeal.

The Toffees were docked 10 points in November for breaching the Premier League’s profits and sustainability rules (PSR) and spending more than £19.5m on allowable losses of £105m over a consecutive three-year period. That was reduced to six points on appeal this week.

Dyche had been vocal that Everton were unable to reach an agreement while the case and subsequent appeal loomed over them, as they and other clubs could not predict how many points they needed to achieve goals this season due to the uncertainty.

But the Everton boss says they are now happy to receive clarity. “We’re happy to have got something back, obviously,” Dyche said this afternoon, speaking ahead of the club’s game against West Ham on Saturday at Goodison Park.

“You are always greedy and want more and more, but the points that the club presented have been listened to and we have recovered the four points. We will accept it and now it will clarify the situation, which is good for us and for the players, but in reality it is good for everyone.

Everton were docked 10 points in November for excessive spending, but an appeal gave them back four points.

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‘Anything that contributes to giving a push of any kind is good news. The performances have remained solid, obviously we haven’t gotten the wins we wanted. Getting four back is kind of a boost (boost isn’t the right word), but the table adjustment that’s now evident was necessary.

‘Everyone felt that 10 in the first place was hard. Some would say that perhaps we expected more in return. It’s done and that’s all we were looking for. We wanted to recover the points, but the main thing was to provide clarity.

“For us, but mostly for everyone, we felt it was an ‘interesting’ period. Everton, of course, have a second charge on them for a set of separate accounts, but Dyche insists the club are not thinking about that.” and he’s just focused on moving forward now.

He added: ‘There is nothing we can do about (the second case) at this time. The focus was primarily on this call and what emerged from it. We have certainly put it aside now because it has become a fact: a line has been drawn under it and the players are clear about it.

‘We face the rest of the season with an open mind. The word galvanized was used because I didn’t think we needed it, but eventually it starts to appear. To be fair to these players, it took a long time before that happened.

“We wanted to get the points back, but the main thing was to provide clarity,” Dyche explained.

“We were all waiting, the noise is getting louder and louder: ‘when is it coming?’ – and the players hear all that and I think they have held pretty steady in the performance levels. I have a lot of respect for the playing group because all outside noise eventually arrives.

And they have done well to put it behind them and stay focused on the job at hand. Ranking looks different and now it’s about using it wisely and taking a step forward. “I thought it was starting to show up in the last few games, but the line is drawn and we move on.”