Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's Determination to Prove Doubters Wrong

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rode transfer deadline day like every Everton supporter – from the initial buzz to the cold, nagging frustration. Only his anger wasn’t about The Friedkin Group’s direction or a thin squad list on a graphic. It was about how quickly the noise outside had written off the players still inside Finch Farm.

Excitement turned to chaos as the clock ticked down. David Moyes ended the window with fewer players than he started, just one recognised striker and no specialist cover at either full-back. The Folarin Balogun saga summed it up: a £40m deal sheet filed, the US international striker then walking away at the last moment. Everton’s plans, such as they were, lay in pieces.

So, what’s left in the dressing room after a day like that? According to Dewsbury-Hall, plenty.

‘We’ll show everyone’

“Really good to be honest,” he says of the mood. 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 early-season performances back him up. There’s been energy, cohesion, a sense that this group is more than the transfer window suggests.

Dewsbury-Hall has been watching the reaction online. He did not enjoy what he saw.

“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 sugar-coat 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?”

That line clearly stung him. It sounds like it’s been repeated in the dressing room.

“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.”

A smaller squad, a sharper edge

Moyes has already voiced concern about the message the window sends to his players at a time when he is trying to push standards up. A thin squad can feel like a club easing off the accelerator.

Dewsbury-Hall doesn’t see it that way.

“Not really, no,” he replies when asked if the business has hurt the group. “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.”

That’s the crux of Everton’s gamble. Fewer bodies, but a higher base level.

“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 sits at the centre of that belief. Since his £28m move from Chelsea last summer, he has grown into one of Moyes’s most important players, his decision to walk away from Stamford Bridge already vindicated.

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

Filling Séamus Coleman’s void

When Séamus Coleman left, he took more than a right-back’s shirt with him. He took a decade of dressing-room authority. Everton responded by forming a new leadership group. Dewsbury-Hall, just a year into his time at the club, was voted in.

“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 sense of responsibility shows in the way he has taken Harrison Armstrong under his wing. Armstrong, 19, came within a phone call of leaving on deadline day. Nottingham Forest thought they had him. Evertonians at Bournemouth thought otherwise.

The away end erupted with fury when news of the potential sale filtered through. The backlash was immediate and loud. The owners backed down.

“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.”

Armstrong has an ally who won’t spare his feelings.

“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.”

Europe, cups and England

Dewsbury-Hall doesn’t hide from targets. He lists them, one by one: European qualification, a strong cup run, development in every area of his game, and an England debut.

Ambitious? Yes. Unrealistic? He doesn’t think so, even with a trimmed squad.

His form has already caught the eye of Thomas Tuchel. The England manager names his next squad on Friday. Dewsbury-Hall knows he is in the conversation.

“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 logic applies to Everton. Nothing will be handed to them. Not with a short bench, not with a restless fanbase, not in a league this unforgiving.

Dewsbury-Hall’s answer is simple: keep pushing, keep proving, keep forcing hands – whether in the England manager’s office or in the Premier League table.