On a deadline day that sent Everton supporters from hope to fury in a matter of hours, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rode the same rollercoaster – but stepped off it with a very different conclusion.
The midfielder admits the window left him exasperated. Not because a £40m move for Folarin Balogun collapsed at the last moment, not because David Moyes ended the day with a thinner squad than he started with – one striker, no specialist full-back cover, glaring gaps everywhere you look – but because of what came next.
The mood outside Goodison turned toxic. Inside Finch Farm, he insists, it did not.
“We’ll show everyone”
“How, now, is the mood in the squad?” feels like the only place to begin after a deadline day that saw Everton’s plans unravel in real time and left supporters questioning the Friedkin Group’s direction.
“Really good to be honest,” Dewsbury-Hall says. No hesitation. “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.’”
The performances so far this season back him up. Everton have looked organised, aggressive, and far from the relegation candidates some have already branded them.
He has seen the online reaction. He has seen the doomsday predictions.
“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?”
It is a pointed question. Not an attack on the fanbase, but 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.”
A small squad with big ambitions
Moyes has already voiced his concern about the message a chaotic window sends into a dressing room he is trying to push to the next level. On paper, his fears make sense: fewer bodies, more strain, a long season ahead.
On the grass, Dewsbury-Hall does not see a group deflated.
“Not really, no,” he says when asked if the business has hurt morale. “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 is not pretending the window went to plan. He is clear that some things simply slipped beyond Everton’s control.
“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.”
That belief is not blind optimism. It is rooted in his own journey.
Leaving Stamford Bridge, owning Goodison
Dewsbury-Hall’s £28m move from Chelsea last summer raised eyebrows. Walking away from Stamford Bridge at 27 is a big call. At 28, he looks vindicated.
“I’m in the prime years of my career,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to spend more years stagnating.”
He has become a central figure in Moyes’s side, dictating tempo, pressing with intelligence, and arriving in the box at the right moments. His influence now stretches beyond the pitch.
With Séamus Coleman gone, Everton needed new voices. A new structure emerged: a leadership group to fill the void left by a captain who had been the club’s conscience for more than a decade.
“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,” Dewsbury-Hall 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.”
He has become one of the standard-bearers for what Everton want to be under Moyes: demanding, vocal, unafraid of responsibility.
Protecting the future: Harrison Armstrong
That responsibility is perhaps most visible in his relationship with Harrison Armstrong, the 19‑year‑old midfielder who came within hours of leaving on loan to Nottingham Forest.
Armstrong’s future swung on a single away end. Evertonians at Bournemouth made their fury clear when news of the proposed move filtered through. The owners listened. 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.”
Armstrong has talent and swagger. Dewsbury-Hall wants to sharpen both.
“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 or the Wolves goal last season. We have good banter.”
The Palace strike on the opening day and last season’s goal at Wolves are not just clips for social media; they are markers of what Dewsbury-Hall now expects from himself.
England in sight
The Nottingham-born midfielder does not hide from his targets. He lists them, calmly, like items on a checklist: European qualification with Everton, a deep cup run, improvement in every area of his game, and a first England cap.
The last of those is no longer a distant dream. Thomas Tuchel names his squad next Friday. Dewsbury-Hall knows he is under serious consideration.
“I know I’m the closest I have ever been now. 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.”
That message is not a pat on the back. It is a legal formality, a reminder that he must be available on certain dates. For him, it lands like a jolt of electricity.
“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 line could be pinned above the dressing-room door at Finch Farm.
Nothing will be given to Everton this season: not safety, not Europe, not respect. Dewsbury-Hall is fine with that. He sounds almost energised by it.
The window has closed, the noise has not. The question now is simple: can this lean, angry, tight-knit squad turn that sense of grievance into the kind of season that makes everyone rewrite their early predictions?
