The victory over Sheffield United underscored just how perplexing it is that neither Sean Dyche nor Jarrad Branthwaite have been shortlisted for end-of-season Premier League awards, writes Everton writer Joe Thomas.
The most plausible reason Everton’s Sean Dyche and Jarrad Branthwaite are not in contention for end-of-season Premier League accolades is that their accomplishments are too embarrassing to explain.
Few other managers and players can claim to have outperformed their expectations for this season as dramatically as the duo. What they have accomplished over the last nine months has been incredible.
The Premier League presented unprecedented challenges to their performance, which could be a contributing factor.
Everton manager Dyche began the season with a side that had lost key players in the summer, following successive seasons where survival was in the final week. Attempts to strengthen were made on a shoestring, and his alternatives were limited this year compared to the prior two.
Nonetheless, he has provided a season in which Everton has earned enough points to separate itself from the top half solely on the basis of goal difference. The football wasn’t great; results were hit and miss, and that four-month winless streak was awful. There are reasonable claims that he does not deserve the title of Manager of the Year, which Aston Villa manager Unai Emery would be a more appropriate recipient of, for example. However, it is perplexing why he was not one of the five shortlisted candidates.
Dyche, who prioritises realism over style, has led a club in a fragile state, with an interim board, a challenging takeover, and two points deductions due to external factors. Nonetheless, Everton’s 40 points after Saturday’s triumph over Sheffield United are higher than their totals from the previous two seasons with superior players.
It’s remarkable that the Blues have managed to score another eight despite the problems that have wracked the dressing room. Dyche has spent much of the season as the club’s figurehead in the midst of instability, and he has managed to keep things together. Some may argue that he won Manager of the Month in April and thus has not been overlooked. However, the Premier League could barely award that to anyone else. When examined in isolation, that can be portrayed as a run of excellent form at a critical point in the campaign.
Dyche’s season, which could have finished in the top ten and included a historic Merseyside derby victory, cannot be regarded in isolation. His placement on the shortlist would cause friction in a Premier League that has made his job more difficult by punishing his team with never-before-seen penalties, the first of which was, of course, reduced on appeal. The league’s handling of its profit and sustainability prosecutions significantly compromised the season’s legitimacy, reinforcing calls for independent regulation. Try to convey that in a neat summary of what the Premier League want to market as another great season.
Branthwaite was not included in the Young Player of the Season shortlist, which is unusual. Again, events against Sheffield United lent credence to this, as he performed another superb performance to assist his team keep a 13th clean sheet. He began the season as a backup for Everton and the England Under-21s. He finishes in contention for a spot in England’s senior Euros squad and as one of the world’s most promising defensive prospects.
Not only has he established himself as a top Premier League centre-back, but he has also supplied huge goals in big moments, notably a last-minute level against Tottenham Hotspur and the first Goodison Park derby victory in 14 years. He would have had worthy competition if he had been shortlisted, but his failure to be considered is unusual, and it may be best explained by the most important aspect of his biography, which is how he maintained his performance standards in the face of hardship caused by the Premier League.
Perhaps the league doesn’t want to share that narrative.
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