Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on Everton's Season Ahead

On a deadline day that left Everton supporters staring at their phones in disbelief, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rode the same emotional rollercoaster – but stepped off with a very different conclusion.

Excitement gave way to confusion. Confusion hardened into exasperation. One striker through the door, no cover at either full-back, and a squad that somehow ended the window smaller than it started. A £40m move for US international Folarin Balogun collapsed at the last, the forward walking away minutes after a deal sheet had gone in. Outside Goodison, the mood turned dark. Inside Finch Farm, Dewsbury-Hall bristled.

“The reactions, the meltdowns… it annoyed me a bit,” he admits. Not a complaint, more a challenge.

Because while a fanbase under The Friedkin Group is left wondering what, exactly, the plan is, the dressing room has drawn its own line in the sand.

“We’ll show everyone”

Ask Dewsbury-Hall about the mood in the squad and he doesn’t hesitate.

“Really good, to be honest,” he says. “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 performances so far back that up. There is a defiance to them, a refusal to lean on the transfer window as an excuse. While social media debated survival odds and squad depth charts, the players counted something else: quality.

“I saw people saying: ‘We’ll be lucky to stay up this year,’” Dewsbury-Hall says, the irritation still fresh. “What message is that sending to the lads who are already here?

“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.”

David Moyes has already voiced concern about the signal a chaotic window might send to his players. Dewsbury-Hall doesn’t duck the question, but he doesn’t indulge the narrative either.

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

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.”

From Stamford Bridge to centre stage

If Everton are to turn that conviction into something tangible, Dewsbury-Hall will sit at the heart of it. Since his £28m move from Chelsea last summer, he has grown into the role he always believed he could fill, but never fully owned at Stamford Bridge.

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

At 28, he plays like a man who knows there is no time left to waste. His influence stretches far beyond the centre circle. When Séamus Coleman left in the summer, he took with him more than appearances and armbands; he left a cultural void. Everton responded by creating a leadership group. Dewsbury-Hall, barely a year into his time at the club, went straight 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.

“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 wanted responsibility. He has it.

Guiding the next wave

That responsibility is most visible when he talks about Harrison Armstrong. The 19-year-old midfielder was on the brink of leaving for Nottingham Forest before deadline day. Then came Bournemouth, the away end, and a furious reaction that forced the owners into a U-turn.

“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.”

The senior midfielder has taken the teenager under his wing, though not without a bit of needle.

“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.”

There is a lightness there, but also a clear sense of standards. This is how a new core builds itself: not with slogans, but with daily demands and the odd sharp joke about wayward finishing.

Eyes on Europe – and England

Dewsbury-Hall does not hide from ambition. He lists his targets without flinching: European qualification, a strong cup run, improvement in every area of his game and, finally, a first England cap.

He knows the conversation has already started. His form has caught the eye of Thomas Tuchel, who names his next squad on Friday.

“I know I’m the closest I have ever been now,” Dewsbury-Hall 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.”

That line could double as a mission statement for Everton’s season.

Nothing will be given to this squad. Not with a thin bench, not with doubts swirling around ownership and direction, not with a fanbase still nursing deadline-day scars. But as long as Dewsbury-Hall can look around that dressing room and see “top player, top player, top player”, he will keep driving the message that they can still turn this into a year that matters.

The window is closed. The excuses are gone. What happens next is entirely on them.