As a trio of fixtures go, they were probably the least exotic selections Evertonians could have imagined for this summer’s pre-season schedule but in truth there’s a strategy behind them that is probably far better-suited to prepare Sean Dyche’s side for their next Premier League campaign.
A week-and-a-half after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal secured the victory over Bournemouth required to secure the Blues’ top flight status for a 121st campaign and avoid the threat of a first relegation in 72 years which had come perilously close due to the lowest equivalent points total in the club’s 135-year history in the Football League/Premier League, three friendly matches were confirmed ahead of the 2023/24 season. An Everton XI – which will include Under-21s team players – cross the Mersey to face Tranmere Rovers on Saturday July 22 (2pm kick-off) before Dyche’s squad go to Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday July 25 (7.45pm) and then there is a trip to Stoke City on Saturday July 29 (3pm).
A change of manager at the end of January with Dyche replacing Frank Lampard and the uncertainty over which division Everton were going to be in next season until the final day on May 28 might well have not helped shape the club’s plans – fans in Singapore might be far less enthused about seeing Leicester City play there next month against Liverpool after they dropped into the Championship instead – but another long haul joint may well not have been to the new Blues boss’ tastes anyway.
Burnley’s pre-season schedules from Dyche’s final three seasons in charge at Turf Moor provided a clue to the kind of localised programmes he’s deployed in recent summers. Ahead of what proved to be his last campaign at the helm of the Clarets in 2021/22, other than another visit to Tranmere Rovers, the team didn’t even get beyond the historic borders of Lancashire with games against Oldham Athletic, Blackpool and Manchester United.
READ NEXT: Everton have already made a transfer decision that hints at Demarai Gray sale dilemma
READ NEXT: 'Fantastic for me' - 40-goal forward breaks silence on future amid Everton transfer interest
The year before that – with coronavirus restrictions in place – Burnley only ventured a mere 25 yards down the road to Preston North End but even before the pandemic, 2019 featured another tour of venues within an hour’s drive as they went to Crewe Alexandra, Port Vale, Fleetwood Town and Wigan Athletic after what must have seemed like a holiday treat when they faced Fulham at their Algarve training base in Portugal.
Burnley of course aren’t much of a global brand though and Dyche is quickly learning that expectation levels are – quite rightly so – much higher at his current employers but while recent Everton excursions have been made with commercial opportunities in mind, it’s debatable just how much they’ve prepared the team for Premier League action. In both 2021 and 2022 the Blues returned to the USA which had been one of David Moyes’ favoured summer haunts during his time in charge at Goodison Park.
The first trip saw Rafael Benitez’s side play a brace of fixtures in Orlando where – after Premier League rivals Arsenal and Italian champions Internazionale both withdrew due COVID-19 fears – they lifted the Florida Cup when defeating Colombian side Millonarios 10-9 on penalties after a 1-1 draw while also beating Mexicans UNAM 1-0. Last summer they did get to face Mikel Arteta’s Gunners stateside, losing 2-0 in Baltimore although the 39,245 crowd was considerably smaller than the 71,203 who turned up at the same M&T Bank Stadium when Lampard and Ashley Cole were on the pitch rather than the touchline for Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Milan in 2009.
If that was a disappointment, it must have paled in comparison to what followed next at the hands of another team coached by a former Everton player. The Blues aren’t going to convince many neutral US fans that they’re somehow “America’s team” with any more 4-0 pastings to Major League Soccer sides like the one they suffered against Minnesota United.
Then last November during the unprecedented mid-season break for a winter World Cup finals in Qatar, Everton dashed off ‘Down Under’ for a lucrative appearance in the Sydney Super Cup where they defeated Celtic 4-2 on penalties after a goalless draw before thrashing local side Western Sydney Wanderers 5-1. The smiling faces in the stands of Antipodean-based Blues contrasted sharply to the anguish at the Vitality Stadium just before the trip when loyal but long-suffering Everton supporters travelled over a thousand miles in the space of four days to witness a brace of humiliating heavy defeats to Bournemouth.
Any hopes that the goal glut in Oz could be transferred to the action back in England quickly evaporated. Indeed out of the Blues’ five scorers in Australia, home-grown hero Anthony Gordon, who netted a hat-trick, was sold for £45million to Newcastle United in the January transfer window; Neal Maupay failed to register again during the season with the £15million signing finishing his debut campaign at the club with a paltry one goal from 29 matches and youngster Tom Cannon was loaned out to Preston North End.
Other than fears that a half-baked Everton might suffer a humiliating defeat at Prenton Park against their smaller local rivals from Wirral whose supporters still annually commemorate ‘St Yates’ Day’ on January 27 – the anniversary of their 3-0 FA Cup triumph at Goodison Park in 2001 when centre-half Steve Yates bagged a brace to against Walter Smith’s side – it’s to be hoped that Dyche’s infamous ‘Gaffer’s Day’ at the start of pre-season helps whip his squad into shape physically, there’s little at first glance to quicken the pulses among Blues when it comes to these three fixtures. However, once supporters with a sense of adventure get over not having to get their passports out, there’s much about this list that makes sense.
From a fans’ point of view, Evertonians – some of the best travelling fans in the business – will be able to attend en masse and could potentially even outnumber their hosts at all three games and given that they’re all relatively close, they can even be back home in time for tea! From a football point of view, going head-to-head against other domestic sides with an incremental increase in standard of opponent from League Two, League One and then Championship seems the ideal approach to stepping up preparations ahead of a new Premier League season.
Many have observed how one of Dyche’s managerial attributes is his ability to simplify tasks in the eyes of his players to crystallise a situation and that’s just what he’s done here with these choice of opponents. As the Blues boss declared in his post-match press conference after the 1-0 win over Bournemouth kept his side in the Premier League: “Work on next season started the day I got in here.”
READ MORE
