Sean Dyche laid out a stark assessment of the situation at Everton after the win over Bournemouth that saved the club’s top-flight status. With the Cherries set to return to L4, he reflected on what has and has not changed.

Sean Dyche believes there is “still a lot of work to do” at Everton four months on from the season-ending message he delivered as the club celebrated Premier League survival.

After his side secured their top-flight status with a win over Bournemouth, Dyche laid out the challenge he thought lay at the heart of club’s attempt to progress following two damaging relegation battles.

His comments were seized upon as a much-needed bolt of clarity from a voice from the inside. Since then the Blues has endured a chastening few months in which his work has been hit by financial constraints and the continued instability around the ownership of the club.

Ahead of the return of Bournemouth to L4 on Saturday, Dyche insisted progress was being made, particularly at Finch Farm, but accepted the summer had presented more difficulties than he had anticipated. He said: “I still believe in what I said. I didn’t think it would be a walk in the park and I still don’t. That is not just about results by the way, there is a lot of work to be done here I can assure you.”

Dyche opened up in the media room at Goodison Park after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s amazing strike gave Everton the win they needed to clinch their Premier League survival. “There is a lot to change here and a lot of work to be done,” he said, “but it [survival] was a major step to ensure it… We must demand more, recruit more, and do everything possible. There’s a lot going on here. There is a lot of work to be done. I believe there must be a genuine alignment. I don’t believe the club is ready to think about the broader picture.”

Dyche’s squad shrank in the months that followed. Out-of-contract players like Yerry Mina and loanees like Conor Coady were let go, along with academy talents like Ishe Samuels-Smith. The Blues rebuilt on a shoestring budget, bringing in Beto, Youssef Chermiti, Ashley Young, Arnaut Danjuma, and Jack Harrison for a pittance. However, that progress was hampered by the late-summer departures of Alex Iwobi, Tom Cannon, and Demarai Gray, while Neal Maupay moved on loan after starting Everton’s opening game of the season.

Reflecting on his post-Bournemouth words and the summer that followed, Dyche deliberated over how much had changed since May 28. He said ahead of Bournemouth’s visit this weekend: “It is hard because there were ways we thought things would open up for us to give us more strength in the market, and more strength going forward which, quite apparently, weren’t as open as much as I thought they were going to be – whether that was finance or structure to go and get on with deals and all the rest of it.

“I still believe in what I said, I didn’t think it would be a walk in the park and I still don’t. That is not just about results by the way, there is a lot of work to be done here I can assure you. In my opinion alignment throughout the whole club from top to bottom is one thing, alignment through the team and the real core values the players can grip to if you like.”

A difficult start to the season has followed. The Blues have lost all four home games, meaning the the victory on their own turf was the last match with Bournemouth. Dyche and his players are under the greatest pressure to deliver a result since that day. The former Burnley boss acknowledged this, but re-iterated his belief that the underlying performances and statistics suggest the outlook is more positive than initial results.

For all the difficulties his rebuild encountered, Dyche also believes the work that was done in the transfer market is a positive given the context within which he and director of football Kevin Thelwell were operating. He said “Results of course have to come. The things I am pleased with are that although we have lost depth in the squad we have got a better balance, positional balance. When everyone is fit there is a more competitive balance to the squad per position. I think that was important.

“When I got here there were seven centre-halves, there was a bit of frustration in terms of players we had to lose because of finance and then bringing money in against money out. We have done the best we can with that, and I really mean that. Some of the deals we created out of virtually nothing. We did get money in but it was right on the deadline. They are the things we have ticked, balancing out the club financially, balancing out the club without outlay, against income balancing out the balance of the team, restructuring some of the in-house work, reaffirming the culture of what is needed inside a team.”

Dyche knows that, for all the work that perhaps those outside Finch Farm cannot see, whether true progress is being made will be a results-based judgement. Targets have to be realistic, he suggested, but he acknowledged they also need to be met.

He said: “The challenge as a manager is that I can tell you all the things we have changed and you go, ‘yeah, but you are not winning’, and that is football management. That is what it is like. That is the toughest part of management, doing loads of work behind the scenes with your staff to try a longer term fix but knowing the short term fix has to be delivered and that is the hardest part of management.

“Howard Wilkinson had a saying – win, survive, succeed. It is reverse order to business. In football you have to win immediately and that allows you to succeed in what we imagine is success. Whether that is building a team that can win more than it was doing, actual success whether it is promotion or winning a league, finishing in Europe, winning a cup. There is a level at this club which will mean success. Current success is getting to be where it hasn’t for the last two seasons. Win now, build and succeed.”