Everton manager Sean Dyche has admitted the club’s 10-point deduction may have had a psychological effect on his players.
The Toffees are still awaiting the outcome of their appeal against the punishment they received for breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations last November.
The sanction has effectively plunged the Merseyside club into a relegation battle and Dyche feels the uncertainty over whether or not they will get any points back could be having an impact.
Dyche told a number of national newspapers: “It affects everyone – everyone is sitting around waiting and wondering.
“They take those 10 points off immediately, so you keep looking at that table and you keep getting asked about being in the bottom three, four, five. They don’t leave you up there, so how do we know how that affects the psychology?
“It changes the perception, it changes the feel, it changes the fan base, it changes the feel of performances. That’s just a fact. We all measure it differently when the team are there, top, middle or bottom.
“Does that affect the team whilst the process is going? At first everyone says obviously not because you win four, but you could argue there is a delayed effect.”
Everton’s appeal hearing was held at the end of last month and a verdict is now thought to be imminent but no exact date has been set for when it will be delivered.
“We haven’t got a clue, or I certainly haven’t at the moment,” said Dyche at a press conference.
“The guidelines that you (the media) suggest and we suggest have been for around about the end of the month, so we just have to wait and see.
“I don’t know all the legalities of appeals, of course, but I think it’s in everyone’s interest, firstly our own of course, and for the greater good of football – I think everyone’s wondering – it would be helpful if it’s sooner rather than later.”
After initially responding well to the points setback, Everton are now without a win in eight Premier League games.
They are above the relegation zone only on goal difference after a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Monday.
Dyche, whose side travel to Brighton on Saturday, has at least been pleased with the attitude of his players throughout a troubled period.
He said: “I think the players have been working very hard, very diligently. I’m very pleased with what they’re doing on a daily basis. I don’t think it is literally in the way of every day’s business.
“I’m sure at the back of their minds they’re still wondering, ‘Come on then, when are you going to tell us where we’re at and give us more of a factual kind of view?’, but we’re in the same mindset – it is where it is and that’s it.
“We look at where it is now and then see what comes. We can’t do anything about it until it’s done.”
