Sean Dyche left football fans bemused on Thursday night after he gatecrashed Kerry Katona’s dinner with a male companion on an episode of Celebs Go Dating.
The 54-year-old has spent the nine months since his Everton sacking ‘getting away from football’.
He’s ‘learnt that there’s a life out there’, enjoying time with family and friends, beers and a number of vacations.
But one thing I’m sure Everton, Burnley and Watford supporters could never have envisaged is the husky-voiced, no nonsense manager making an appearance on E4’s Celebs Go Dating.
Well, to the shock of football fans across the country, on Thursday night that’s precisely what happened.
What’s perhaps even more stunning is the fact that Dyche is seemingly pals with former Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona.
Sean Dyche made a more than surprising appearance on E4’s Celebs Go Dating on Thursday
What’s perhaps even more surprising is that the Everton manager is friends with Kerry Katona
Indeed, Katona was enjoying a date in what looks like a swanky restaurant on the latest episode of the popular dating show when none other than Dyche interrupted her conversation.
‘Oh hello, how are you? How’s it going?’, Dyche asked as Katona broke into laughter.
Narrator Rob Beckett seemed just as surprised as viewers, asking: ‘Hold on, who’s this bloke? Surely not, that’s ex Everton, Watford and Burnley manager Sean Dyche!’
Dyche then joked with Katona: ‘You’re dating these northerners now are ya?’, to which she replied: ‘Yeah! I thought you were going to ask me on a date then! I’m doing well!’
The pair then exchanged a kiss on the cheek before Dyche got back to his food.
Dyche left the Toffees in early January with the club languishing dangerously close to relegation.
His successor David Moyes, who returned to Everton for a second stint, has since brought about a change in fortune in Merseyside, guiding the club to a 13th-placed finished.
Dyche nevertheless maintained that he would have ensured the Toffees avoided the drop, telling Sam Allardyce on his podcast: ‘I think I would have ended up going anyway because I only had six months left on my contract, but the players had done a great job, not just me and my staff, everyone had, the players had gone through a lot. Sometimes I looked and the life in their eyes was coming away.
Dyche gatecrashed Katona’s date at a swanky restaurant on Thursday’s episode
Katona was left almost speechless by Dyche’s surprise appearance as she burst into laughter
The pair, who are seemingly pals, exchanged and hug and a kiss before the manager got back to his food
‘So I spoke to Moyes when he was coming in and told him about the squad that there was nothing wrong with them, but they needed a fresh voice, and sometimes it’s as simple as that.
‘I couldn’t freshen the squad up because we didn’t have the money; it was four in, four out. The players had gone through massive challenges, points deductions and worrying about wages and no money in the club, and I looked and they were beginning to wilt.
‘The crowd are very passionate, but they will put pressure on the team. I said to Moyes, fluff them up, give them a refresh, do your own bits tactically, but you’re not going to be far away. There is no chance this team is going down, even with me, we were never going to go down, but to rebuild it, they needed a new voice.’
He has been linked with a return a return to management in recent months, with Leicester City said to interested in appointing him over the summer.
Dyche however shut down such rumours in an interview earlier this month, dubbing them ‘absolute nonsense.’
