Sean Dyche finally breaks silence on Nottingham Forest sack as boss left baffled | Football | Sport

Sean Dyche has described his departure from Nottingham Forest as a “head-scratcher”. The 54-year-old was relieved of his duties as head coach last month following 114 days in charge. A 0-0 stalemate with relegation-threatened Wolves ended his spell, with owner Evangelos Marinakis holding a meeting with certain senior players afterwards.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his departure, Dyche maintained the “facts” indicated he ought to remain in position at the City Ground. Yet he suggested “keyboard warriors” and discontent within the squad played a part in the choice to dismiss him. When asked if it’s hard to understand why he lost his job, Dyche told The Football Boardroom podcast: “Well, I don’t. Statistically and factually, no emotion to it, if you look at the stats and facts, even after the last game against Wolves. Our current form at that time was ninth in the Premier League. The stats and facts were there, clear as day.

“From my record, from when we got there to when we ended, we’d have been 12th in the Premier League. So on factual data and analysis, I can’t understand any of the decisions that were made. But football is changing, and we witnessed it.”

During his spell at the City Ground, Dyche maintained Forest were always going to struggle to replicate last season’s seventh-place finish. This campaign, they find themselves embroiled in a relegation scrap, and he suggested managing the shift in expectation levels proved problematic.

“The bigger picture with football now is it’s like selling chocolate teapots,” Dyche remarked. “People come out with these stories about how ‘we’re this club’. You go: ‘No, you’re not. You’ve had one good season in 30-odd.’ You’re trying to remind the fanbase – this is where the keyboard warriors get really powerful, by the way – of the truth of what it is rather than what you think it is. It’s very difficult now.”

Dyche emphasised Forest supporters were not the issue, but he claimed a minority of individuals “stir and sell anger” in modern football. He also rejected claims suggesting the squad were being overworked under his management – though he acknowledged it was something the players had raised with him.

“This is a lot that was coming out – that the players are tired because they (Dyche and his staff) are working them too hard,” he said. “Since when has that become a currency that is almost like, oh, what are they doing working footballers too hard?

“If you’d have written that 10 years ago, people would have asked what they were talking about and thought they (the players) should be in there every minute of every day. I mean, I couldn’t believe it, honestly. He’s working the players too hard?

“I’m like, when did that become a bad thing? I’m scratching my head. Me and my staff were going: ‘Well, we’ve got all the data, the stats and facts.’ Lowest physical performing team in the Premier League when we took over, so what do you want me to do then? Not get them fitter? I mean, it’s just madness, right?

He went on: “This is where I was saying about the 10 per cent of football life now – keyboard warriors, media, whatever you want to call it – that for me is a coupon buster. The players were working too hard? I have never heard that as being a negative in my life.

“I cannot fathom that out where we’re asking the players to work hard for a football team and wear the badge with a bit of pride. We all know, as managers, the walls talk. I know the runners and riders in all of my career. I certainly know the ones at Forest. But they’ll get weedled out, because life is like that, they will get found out.”

Dyche stressed that he had no ill feelings towards Evangelos Marinakis after leaving Forest. He continued: “I need to make this clear – this is really important to me as a football person and as a person – Mr Marinakis was nothing but good to me and straight.

“His final decision is a strange one, but as a bloke, with me personally, I’ve got no gripes at all. Nor over his son, Miltos, or the powers that be, no gripes at all.

Dyche, who revealed he has received “top-level” offers since leaving the city of Nottingham, refused to comment on suggestions Forest’s players were failing the club. However, he emphasised he harbours no resentment towards the club, despite his tenure lasting merely four months..

“That’s for you to put together,” he responded when questioned about the dressing room bearing some blame for Forest’s problems. “I’m not going to get involved in all of that. The reason I am not going to get involved too much is I still care about what that job is and I still care about that football club.

“I do not want anything but good on that, even though I’ve just been sacked. I don’t want anything but good for the ownership. I don’t want anything but good for the new manager or the players, let me make that clear. It is a bit of a head-scratcher that I’m sitting here talking about this.

“That’s the bit I will say, because the stats and facts are very clear. But what I’m trying to say is the pressure on football clubs now – going back to ownership models, finance – is enormous from, and believe it or not, people do listen to people sitting on a computer.”