Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: Everton's Key Player Amid Deadline Day Chaos
On a deadline day that sent Everton supporters spiralling from hope to fury, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rode every twist with them – then stepped away from the noise and drew a line.
Excitement gave way to confusion as deals stalled, plans frayed and the window closed with David Moyes holding a thinner squad than when it opened. One senior striker. No specialist cover at either full-back. And the image that summed it up: Folarin Balogun walking away from a £40m move after a deal sheet had already gone in.
Outside the club, the mood turned toxic. Inside it, Dewsbury-Hall insists, something very different took hold.
“The mood’s really good, to be honest,” he says. Not defensive, not evasive. Just blunt. “Definitely not the same mood as what I’ve seen on the outside. There’s a good mentality this year of: ‘We’ll show everyone.’”
Everton’s early performances back him up. This is not a group sulking over what they didn’t get.
“I’ve seen all of the reactions, all of the meltdowns, and in all honesty it annoyed me a bit,” he admits. The irritation is aimed at the narrative, not the supporters. “I get where people are coming from; everyone wants to sign everyone and have the perfect squad. But there are still 19 lads in this building who are going to hopefully take this club to good things this year. That was getting disregarded.”
The doomsday talk – “We’ll be lucky to stay up this year” – struck a nerve.
“What message is that sending to the lads who are already here?” he asks. There’s no rant, just a challenge. “I’m not blaming anyone. We get it. It didn’t work. But let’s all be positive – right, it’s done, bang, let’s go – and that’s what we’ve been trying to say in the dressing room. Of course we would have wanted to sign a couple more, but we’re happy with what we’ve got and it’s given us more impetus now to move on.”
Moyes has already voiced his own concern about what the window might signal to a squad he is trying to push on. Strip away depth, risk morale. Strip away ambition, risk belief. Yet Dewsbury-Hall refuses to paint this as a dressing room deflated.
“Not really, no,” he says when asked if it has had a detrimental impact. “I know we’ve got a smaller squad but we’ve got some really good players. Our starting XI is top, a European starting XI.
“I get it, you need a whole squad, but we’ve got 17, 18 players at a really, really good level. I don’t think a couple of years ago it was at that level. Actually I know it wasn’t.”
He pauses, then leans into the point that has clearly become a mantra inside Finch Farm.
“Things can be out of your hands in football and that’s what happened for us. But we quickly realised: ‘Hang on a minute, look around the dressing room – top player, top player, top player.’ If we’re doing the right things we can still be successful.”
Dewsbury-Hall will be central to that ambition. Since his £28m move from Chelsea last summer, he has grown into the role Everton signed him for: the midfielder who sets the tempo and sets the tone. Regular minutes, rising influence, a clear break from the stop-start years at Stamford Bridge.
“I’m in the prime years of my career,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to spend more years stagnating.”
He hasn’t. On the pitch, he has become a reference point. Off it, he has stepped into a void that could easily have swallowed the dressing room.
When Séamus Coleman left in the summer, Everton did not just lose a right-back. They lost a captain, a conscience, a constant voice. To fill that gap, the club created a leadership group. Dewsbury-Hall, after just one season on Merseyside, was voted into it.
“Because Séamus has left such a big hole we need a group of experienced lads to crack on together and keep the standards high and to drive things,” he explains. The names roll off his tongue: Jordan Pickford, James Tarkowski – now club captain – James Garner, and himself. “The ones that have been playing in the Premier League for years or feel like they are settled at the club.”
“It’s nice [to be voted in after just one season] but it’s definitely an impact I wanted to have. I’m really pleased that the lads look at me as someone that can be important for the dressing room.”
That influence stretches to the club’s brightest young talent. Harrison Armstrong, 19, came close to leaving before deadline day, with Nottingham Forest ready to take him. Then Everton’s away end at Bournemouth erupted. The backlash was instant, loud and unmissable. The owners backed down. Armstrong stayed.
“They definitely made their feelings known and obviously it worked,” Dewsbury-Hall says. “Big credit to them for that, they were amazing that day. And I know for a fact it made Harrison feel very good and it helped him. He is a very confident lad and well respected in the dressing room for such a young age.”
Dewsbury-Hall has taken the teenager under his wing, with a smile and a jab where needed.
“If there is anything I can help him with then I will. Shooting’s definitely one because his shooting is sometimes not the best, and I’ve told him that many times. But he’s got pretty much everything else. He always likes to say he’s got a better strike than me so I just tell him to look at the Palace goal or the Wolves goal last season. We have good banter.”
That mention of Crystal Palace on the opening day, and Wolves last season, is not accidental. Those goals are markers in his own journey – evidence for a player who now talks openly about what comes next.
His targets for this season are not shy: European qualification, a serious run in the cups, an improved all-round game and, hanging just within reach, a first England call-up.
He knows the England manager is watching. He knows the margins are thin.
“I know I’m the closest I have ever been now,” he says. Two weeks before each squad announcement, players on the long list receive a message. Dewsbury-Hall has had it twice: once before the World Cup, and again for the upcoming games. “It’s nice. It means you are doing OK.”
The wording is dry, legalistic, almost comically formal. The impact is anything but.
“It’s a long, long message. It tells you that it’s a legal requirement for us [the Football Association] to tell you in advance that you are in contention and to be available for these dates. It’s a good feeling because you think: ‘OK, I am close,’ but you know you have to keep pushing it to the last minute. It’s up to me. It’s got to be me that forces his hand to choose me. It’s not going to be given to me.”
That last line could double as Everton’s motto this season.
Nothing will be given to them. Not with a trimmed squad, a restless fanbase and a new ownership group under The Friedkin Group still under scrutiny. But inside the dressing room, with Dewsbury-Hall among those driving the standards, there is a simple response to the chaos of deadline day.
They will have to force the issue themselves.
