Sean Dyche has revealed Everton control whether or not to extend Abdoulaye Doucoure's contract - and believes Ellis Simms still has a lot developing to do.
Doucoure appeared to be on the verge of leaving Goodison Park in January after seeing his game time cut under Frank Lampard. He made just 12 appearances in all competitions for Lampard this season.
However, Dyche immediately put Doucoure into his starting line-up for his first game against Arsenal back in February, and he has been an ever-present ever since. His upturn in form has been nothing short of a revelation.
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Doucoure’s current contract is up this summer, and speaking about the midfielder ahead of his side’s clash against Tottenham Hotspur tonight, Dyche said: “He’s got an option anyway at the end of the season.
“We will see how the season carries on going but he’s done very well. I’ve been really pleased with virtually all the players here for adapting to what we are trying to do and what we are trying to achieve with them.
“It’s more of a story with him because he was not playing under the last manager and has played every minute under the new one.
“Sometimes you come in with fresh eyes and a fresh view but I’d always liked him at Watford and that was at the back of my mind – ‘If I liked him then why wouldn’t I like him now?’
“He was straight out of the blocks in training – not verbally, he’s quite quiet, but in terms of showing us he was ready if we wanted him. He looked ready to me and he has certainly delivered.”
And asked who is in control of the extension, Dyche replied: “It’s the club’s option. We control it.”
The Everton boss, who managed forwards like Charlie Austin, Ashley Barnes, Danny Ings and Sam Vokes during his time at Burnley, also believes that Simms still has 'a long way to go' in his development, despite his goal against Chelsea last time out.
“It’s too early for that,” Dyche replied when asked if Simms could follow in the footsteps of the forwards he has managed.
“The thing is when you’re arriving in a game (as big as that) it grabs attention. If he’d scored a goal against someone else and we’d have won 3-0, you might not have noticed him.
“But he’s come on into a game like against Chelsea, and a lot of noise about them at the time, and he scored in that situation, so it makes a bigger story.
“It hasn’t actually changed the facts as I view it: he’s still got a long way to go, still got a lot of work to do. He’s adapting to what we are trying to get him to adapt to.
“There’s no fast track, generally. Sometimes players in all positions, there’s that weird thing of football like when you throw them in (to the team) and they stay there.
“Dwight McNeil did it. He was young, staff were unsure, I said ‘no, no,‘ he’s playing end of story. There wasn’t even a debate.
“We normally have a little debate and I ask what (the coaches) think. That’s an instinct thing, and he went in and never came out. There’s others who you try, come in, out, in out.
“They grow slowly. They mature slowly. So we are looking at his maturing as taking a bit of time - from what I see on the training ground, what he’s adapting to.
“He’s still learning how to use his body better, still learning about his physicality and how to use that better, his running power.
“We are reinforcing that and his fitness levels and all things like that. It’s not an exact science basically. They are human beings.
“I think we’ve done well (coaching) with centre forwards historically, right back to Troy Deeney breaking through with Watford, working with him quite closely as a person and a player.
“Then various ones with Burnley, Danny Ings, was probably one of the originals. Sam Vokes, who was a bit of a journeyman, then did fantastically well, then working through to Woody (Chris Wood) and Barnsey (Ashley Barnes).
“Barnsey had a terrific (career) and still is going after a £500,000 buy from Brighton. These are players who matured from what we do and what we give them back.”
Before Dyche added: "Different players develop at different rates, so I’m not saying he can’t or he can, I’m saying the work still gets done whether you’re developing or not developing, the work has to be done.
"So our consistency of work that we deliver to him, and his responsibility to take ownership of it and take it on will be the same, whether he is fast tracking or not fast tracking.
“We will still be going through the same process, still looking at the importance on things in his game, irrelevant of playing every week or not.
"They are the things we are looking at, saying: ‘These are the important factors on what is going to continue your journey’. That is what we will be doing regardless.”
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