Sean Dyche has been sacked as Everton manager after a dismal run of one win in 11 Premier League matches and with the club sitting one point outside the relegation zone.
Under-18s head coach Leighton Baines and club captain Seamus Coleman will take charge of first-team affairs on an interim basis, starting with Thursday night's FA Cup tie against Peterborough at Goodison Park.
Dyche's back room team Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer had also left the club as new owners the Friedkin Group begin the hunt for his successor.
“Everton Football Club can confirm that Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as senior men's first team manager with immediate effect,” Everton said in a statement.
“The process to appoint a new Manager is under way and an update will be provided in due course.”
Dyche took charge at Everton in January 2023, having had a near 10-year stint as Burnley manager between October 2012 and April 2022.
The Toffees survived relegation at the end of the 2022-23 campaign by just two points, while also overcoming an eight-point penalty for breaches of the league's profitability and sustainability rules to finish 15th last season.
This time round, they managed just three wins in 19 matches leaving them 16th in the table, two points and two places above Ipswich Town, albeit with a game in hand on the Tractor Boys.
Goals had been a major problem for Dyche's side with only rock-bottom Southampton having scored less than Everton's 15 in the top-flight. Their goals-per-game rate of 0.79 is the lowest number in 13 seasons, dropping from 1.05 last term and 0.89 in 2022-23.
In 75 league games in charge, Dyche saw his team win 21, draw 23 and lose 31. The 53-year-old, whose last game as manager saw Everton lose 1-0 at Bournemouth when they failed to register a shot on target, spoke about the speculation surrounding his position at a press conference on Wednesday.
“I think the noise has grown very powerful here. It does do,” he said. "But we've had it before. We've had to push that away and move forward again. We'll keep working with the group, keep reassuring, showing the good side of what we can do.
“The players haven't lacked effort but it's obviously affecting them because you can see it in their performances.
“I think down at Bournemouth we looked tight. We couldn't really find anything that meant anything in the forward department.
“So we're trying to open that up, give them the freedom to play. It's a massive challenge.”
Reports on Monday had suggested the Friedkin Group were “reviewing” the manager's performance, which Dyche made it clear he had no issue with.
“If you are a business of this size, succession planning surely should be part of their diligence; I have no problem with that,” he said.
“It should be ongoing at any football club and a part of any 'normal' business outside football. I never really concern myself with that – but have got to win games.
“We have not won enough this season, [I need to] make sure the team is operating in the right way and please everyone all of the time. That is the job. We haven't done that enough and it comes down to me.”
His exit comes at a crucial time in the club's history with the US-based Friedkin Group only completing a £400 million takeover of the club last month.
This will be Everton's final season at their 132-year-old Goodison Park home before moving to a new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Managers being discussed as possible replacements include Jose Mourinho, David Moyes and Thomas Frank.
Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Mourinho has already been linked with the position despite currently being in charge of Turkish club Fenerbahce.
Following a draw against former club United in the Europa League earlier this season during October, the Portuguese coach said: “The best thing I have to do is when I leave Fener is that I go to a club that doesn't play in UEFA competition – so a club at the bottom in England who needs a coach in two years, I'm ready to go.”
One fly in the ointment, though, could be that TFG owner Dan Friedkin has already sacked Mourinho once in his role as owner and president of Roma.
Moyes, who managed Everton between 2002 and 2013 and is looking for work after leaving West Ham United last summer, has also been linked with a return to Merseyside.
Brentford coach Frank has impressed since guiding them into the Premier League – taking the West London club back into the top flight for the first time since 1947 and then staying there.
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BBC business reporters, like a new raft of government officials, are being removed from the national and international hub of London and surely the quality of their work must suffer.
