TOP HATTER A VICTIM OF EVERTON'S WAGE CAP

Dyche had to make cuts and Townsend was the sacrifice

- DAVID ANDERSON

SEAN DYCHE claims he could not offer Andros Townsend a new contract because of Everton's money problems.

Dyche was told to cut Everton's wage bill when he took over a year ago and says he could not table Townsend new terms when he was still battling back from a serious knee injury.

The 32-year-old joined Luton on a free in October and is proving he can still cut it in the top flight as he returns to Goodison Park today in the FA Cup.

"He was coming off such a long-term injury and he'd worked incredibly hard to work through that and he'd looked after himself incredibly well," said the Everton boss.

"But you know, going on a 'maybe' when we were trying to get a 'definite' was a tricky situation.

"You know the players here have been on good contracts and it was quite obvious that we had to lose players here to try and bring all that down. So he was just caught in 15330