Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: Everton's Hope Amid Transfer Chaos

Transfer deadline day is supposed to be fun. Chaos, rumours, last‑minute rescues. For Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, it felt like something else entirely.

At Everton, the window slammed shut with the club lighter on numbers, heavier with questions. A striker short, no cover at full-back, and the surreal image of Folarin Balogun walking away from a £40m move minutes after a deal sheet had gone in. Excitement gave way to confusion, then exasperation. Not just in the stands, but in the dressing room – for very different reasons.

Inside Finch Farm, though, the mood is not what you’d think from the outside.

“Really good to be honest,” Dewsbury-Hall insists. Not defiant for the cameras, but matter‑of‑fact. “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 start to the season backs him up. Performances have carried a conviction that jars with the narrative of a club drifting under The Friedkin Group.

What has grated on him is the reaction.

“I’ve seen all of the reactions, all of the meltdowns, and in all honesty it annoyed me a bit,” he says, not bothering to sugarcoat it. “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.

“I saw people saying: ‘We’ll be lucky to stay up this year.’ What message is that sending to the lads who are already here?”

This is the fault line running through Everton right now. A fanbase traumatised by years of missteps, and a group of players trying to drag the club out of that spiral while being told they’re part of the problem.

“I’m not blaming anyone,” Dewsbury-Hall adds. “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.”

Lean squad, loud belief

David Moyes has not hidden his concern. Everton finished deadline day with fewer players than they started it with, one recognised striker and no natural cover for either full-back. For a manager trying to nudge a team towards Europe, that is a risky hand.

So has it dented belief?

“Not really, no,” Dewsbury-Hall replies. “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.

“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. Since his £28m move from Chelsea last summer, he has become one of Moyes’s non‑negotiables. He left Stamford Bridge because he refused to waste his peak years waiting for chances that never quite came.

“I’m in the prime years of my career,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to spend more years stagnating.”

He hasn’t. His influence has stretched far beyond 90 minutes on a Saturday.

Filling Coleman’s void

Séamus Coleman’s departure left more than an empty peg in the dressing room. It removed a cultural anchor. Everton responded by forming a new leadership group, a collective tasked with keeping standards where Coleman had left them.

Dewsbury-Hall’s name was in it after just one season.

“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. “It’s just the more experienced lads – [Jordan] Pickford, Tarky [James Tarkowski, the new club captain], Jimmy [James] Garner, myself. 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 responsibility shows in how he has taken Harrison Armstrong under his wing. The 19‑year‑old midfielder came close to leaving on deadline day, a move to Nottingham Forest looming until Everton’s own supporters stepped in.

At Bournemouth, the away end erupted in anger at the prospect of losing one of their brightest academy products. The message reached the boardroom. The deal died.

“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.”

Mentor and protégé already share a running joke.

“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 [Crystal] Palace goal [on the opening day] or the Wolves goal last season. We have good banter.”

Eyes on Europe – and England

For all the noise around ownership and recruitment, Dewsbury-Hall’s own targets are sharp. He is not talking about survival or consolidation. He wants Europe.

The Nottingham-born midfielder is clear: European qualification is on his list, even with a trimmed squad. So is a deep cup run. So is a broader evolution of his game. And, looming above all of that, a first England cap.

His form has not gone unnoticed. Thomas Tuchel names his next England squad on Friday, and Dewsbury-Hall knows he is on the radar.

“I know I’m the closest I have ever been now,” he says. “You get a message two weeks before the squad is announced. I got one for the long list for the World Cup and I’ve had one for these next games. It’s nice. It means you are doing OK.

“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.”

The same applies to Everton. Nothing will be handed to a club still trying to convince its own supporters that it has a plan worth believing in. Dewsbury-Hall, though, is not waiting for clarity from above.

He has his own version of the future in mind – lean squad, loud dressing room, and a team that proves everyone wrong the hard way.