Sean Dyche has laughed off Neal Maupay’s disparaging remarks about Everton and doubts the on-loan forward will face disciplinary action for his comments.
Maupay sparked a ferocious backlash from Everton fans after taking a swipe at the club in the wake of the side’s 2-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
‘Whenever I’m having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile,’ the Frenchman wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In August, Maupay sealed a season-long loan move to Marseille and the 28-year-old made no secret of his delight to be on his way out of Everton at the time.
Maupay has failed to make a significant impact at Goodison Park following a £15million move from Brighton back in 2022, managing just one goal in 32 appearances for the Merseyside outfit.
Given he is still under contract, Maupay’s behaviour has gone down like a lead ballon behind the scenes at Everton, with the attacker seemingly intent on burning all bridges with the Toffees.
But facing the media this afternoon, Everton head coach Dyche played down the significance of Maupay’s social media antics, stressing that he had far more important things to worry about with his side scrapping for Premier League survival.
‘I think it’s fair to say there’s a bigger picture to Everton Football Club that I’m focusing on,’ a grinning Dyche told reporters.
‘I don’t think I need to be too worried about his comments.’
Asked whether Maupay could face disciplinary action, Dyche replied: ‘No, I don’t think we’ll be worried about that.’
While previewing Everton’s upcoming clash with Bournemouth, Dyche praised Andoni Iraola for the ‘great job’ he had done on the south coast.
‘Their manager has done a great job. I remember playing them when he first got here and they were trying to play total football… it didn’t work for them,’ Dyche added.
‘They had a really tough start and he’s changed it radically. I respect that, to change a whole style.
‘He’s gone very much more straightforward with his football but that’s a compliment, getting the best out of your players, players with energy and players with quality as well. They’re forming a unit that has been very successful so far this season.’
Former boxer Tony Bellew, a lifelong Everton fan, has been vocal with his criticism of Maupay, directly responding to the attacker’s tweet and branding him a ‘p****’ and a ‘muppet’.
‘It’s not the nicest thing to be done by a player who is obviously on the payroll. He’s a muppet,’ Bellow told talkSPORT.
‘When Everton are doing okay, you don’t hear a murmur out of the little squeak – the weasel. But the minute Everton are losing or underperforming, then the weasel shows up.
‘It’s just very, very sad, and he should worry about the team he’s actually playing for because while he was at Everton, the last thing he did was play football – he was useless.
‘I just don’t understand why he is having a go at his paymasters. Brighton were desperate to get him out.
‘We just didn’t know what we were taking, but we’ve found out he’s a little, horrible wind-up merchant, so he is what he is.’
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