eAbdoulaye Doucoure has lifted the lid on his fall-out with Frank Lampard that saw him banished from training with the Everton first team while also speaking about how returning Blues boss David Moyes has turned things around. The midfielder was frozen out in Lampard’s final days at Goodison Park but he has delivered his side of events in a wide-ranging interview about his career on The Overlap Breakdown podcast.

Doucoure said: “After a home game, we had a big argument between me and him. I was not happy and I told him the truth because I am very honest, and he didn’t like it.

“So, the day afterwards, they brought me to the club and they said to me: ‘You can’t stay with the team because of disrespect from me in front of the players.’ They said: ‘You need to train with the Under-21s or training alone.

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“I said: ‘Look, I’m going to train alone, because I know how to look after myself.’ Luckily, it was not long because I think he was sacked about a week afterwards, so I just trained alone for around two or three days.

“The week after, I came back into the team and we beat Arsenal and I was almost player of the match. So, imagine how football is.

“I always believed in my hard work and respect my manager. I think he disrespected me a little bit at that time.”

Asked how close he was to leaving Everton at that time in January 2023, Doucoure said: “I was very close. I was talking to a couple of clubs in the Premier League.

“Obviously I didn’t want it but when you start training alone and not playing, the exit is very close. I was very, very close to leaving at it was heartbreaking for me to be honest.”

In contrast to under Lampard, Doucoure became one of the main men under successor Sean Dyche and netted 11 goals in the first year under the former Burnley boss. While Everton struggled in the first half of this season under Dyche, the 32-year-old believes he deserves credit for the job that he did at the club overall.

He said: “I had a very good relationship with Sean. I think when he came, he was a bit of freshness, he was a big light for me.

“He trusted me from day one. I think people misunderstood Sean Dyche a bit.

“He’s old-fashioned and he used to push Burnley with the way they played but with Everton, to be honest, he did a fantastic job. Without him, perhaps, we wouldn’t be in the Premier League.

“So, people have to understand that and respect that. I said to him when he left: ‘People are going to be grateful for you.’ I think he came in the toughest time in the Everton period and he just did a fantastic job, because he kept the team in the Premier League and kept the focus on staying in the Premier League – he worked very well I think.”

Although Everton were knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday with a 2-0 home defeat to Bournemouth, prior to that they won three consecutive Premier League fixtures under returning manager David Moyes and Doucoure is impressed with the changes that the Scot has made. He said: “I think obviously he has a good team around him. The assistant and him work very well together and they’ve known each other for a long time.

“But since he came in, he just changed a couple of things and you can see the difference. From the back, just the positioning of the players, even my position, he showed me a couple of clips where I can improve and he’s made a massive difference and that’s why he’s been very successful.

“I think he is (underrated as a tactician) because people have this mentality that he plays long ball, that he’s very tough and is a defensive coach. But tactically, he’s brilliant.

“With experience, he just knows. He just came in and put a couple of people in place, a couple of players in position like myself, he put me more on the right side when we had the ball.

“I find myself closer to the goal and in the good positions to score goals. This made a big difference because he knows you can create chances, even for myself.

“I think a manager with his experience, he can just organise what the team needs. What we needed was just like a couple of tweaks and it’s worked completely so far.”

The midfielder added: “With Sean Dyche I was more as a number 10 to be honest and it worked well, I think. Towards the end, obviously teams start to know us and know me and I was too high up on the pitch and my impact was not that great.

“David Moyes recognised I needed to be deeper to touch the ball more times and be more effective in the game. He changed my game massively so far and the last couple of games I’ve enjoyed so much because I was touching the ball more often and was in a position to receive the ball as well, to score goals.

“I prefer to be box-to-box, not too high, not too deep, just in between, this is my best position, I think. A proper eight.”