Sean Dyche often said he could write books on what he was going through at Everton. He does not need to. The chaos that was visible from the outside is more than enough to make it clear he had, at times, an almost impossible job.

Over recent weeks he took to stressing, publicly, the challenges he took on went beyond the ones pitched to him. Given that he joined Everton amid the boardroom, dressing room and relegation crises of January 2023, that is some going.

Back then, he knew he was entering a survival battle that could go all the way. He knew he was inheriting a fractured club with a fan base exhausted at having pulled Everton through one relegation battle and staring down the barrel of another.

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Yet there was so much to come that he did not know. Over the next 23 months he would have to deal with two unprecedented points deductions, the sale of key players and all of the chaos that came with Farhad Moshiri’s search for an escape route from Everton.

Dyche shouldered a lot of responsibility at a club that, for large parts of his tenure, was devoid of leadership. He was the public face who had to answer questions over the finances of a club that breached Premier League spending rules and, at times, appeared to flirt with collapse. None of that was his fault.

Yet he kept turning up. He was, of course, paid handsomely for his duties. He did not always do them with a smile on his face - often viewing his media work as a battle to be won against reporters rather than an opportunity to use the press to build a connection with supporters.

But his job was to keep Everton in the Premier League and he did that. On both occasions it was a remarkable achievement.

When his predecessor Frank Lampard left the club almost two years ago, Everton appeared to be in a relegation death spiral. At times, it appeared doubtful Dyche could arrest the decline, the dismal loss to Newcastle United under the Goodison lights a particular low point that spring. Yet the response was emphatic. It is still tough to compute how Everton went down to Brighton and Hove Albion and produced the stunning 5-1 win that paved the way for survival on the last day of the campaign.

The following year was also chastening but Dyche led his team through two points deductions, the first of which shocked the world of football and cast a shadow over a campaign that should have seen Everton stride towards the comfort of mid-table but instead ended in another survival fight.

A remarkable series of wins in April delivered another burst of memories, including the stunning Merseyside derby win that ended 14 years of Goodison pain against Liverpool. Dyche entered this season in a position of strength, reinforced by the weakness above him as takeover deals collapsed and undermined his efforts to build stability.

It is true that the same vacuum of leadership offered him protection. Dyche’s mantra, that he would be judged on wins, was a common refrain. It was not true last season though, when he led the club to a new unwanted record winless streak in the Premier League. There can be little doubt that he would have been dismissed had he been operating at a club with any semblance of stability. He was not though, and that gave him the chance to push through and deliver the week of wins in April that saved Everton’s season and changed Dyche’s touchline dress sense.

The problem for Dyche was that he could not build on his work during the patches of stability he was afforded on Merseyside. Expectations rose this season due to the achievements of last year. Everton would have finished 12th without the eight points taken from the club, level on points with Brighton. Yet when the season started with the two sides meeting in L4, the gulf could not have been greater as the away side cut apart the Blues on the first game of the farewell to Goodison.

To compare the two is unfair - Brighton spent a lot of money this summer while Everton once again worked through another challenging transfer window. But it is not unreasonable for supporters to have expected more this season. While Everton made money in the summer, Dyche was assisted with the addition of attacking talent that offered the potential for his side to progress. He failed to find a breakthrough and, by his final game at Bournemouth last weekend, appeared bereft of ideas in his hunt for answers.

That was a problem. He could easily have faced scrutiny from his bosses after the dismal defeat to Manchester United at the start of December but the reprieve allowed him to oversee the vital win over Wolverhampton Wanderers days later. That game looked set to give new owners The Friedkin Group the foundation they hoped for as they completed their takeover a fortnight later. It opened up a gap to the bottom sides, restored confidence and plunged Wolves into chaos. Dyche looked capable of delivering the stability that would save the new owners money and give them time to put in place their vision for Everton.

The three draws that followed added to that impression but, for all of the solidity on show, resilience lauded by Dyche, the saves of Jordan Pickford were key and the improving form of relegation rivals heaped pressure on the games with Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth that ended in defeat. Everton, and Dyche, went backwards, not forwards.

The difference this week is that, for the first time in a long time, Everton’s hierarchy had the stability to hold Dyche accountable for his results. As he conceded in his final press conference this week, three wins in 19 league matches was not good enough.

Dyche and Everton increasingly had the feeling of a loveless relationship, a marriage of convenience - one that needed to be endured rather than enjoyed. Once the takeover was completed it therefore felt a case of when, rather than if, his time at the club would end.

But while many may not have loved Dyche, they may well grow to love what he did for the club - even if this is a period that is not remembered fondly. Moshiri would not have been able to find reputable investors had Everton fallen out of the Premier League. Dyche was crucial to keeping the club in the top flight, against the odds, not once but twice.

If Everton’s new owners bring about stability and the dawn of a brighter, better future for this great club, Dyche’s role during the hardship of recent years will have been pivotal. He deserves respect for that.