Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall believes there is more to come after a standout first season at Everton, where he scored eight goals and provided four assists. The 27-year-old midfielder quickly became a talisman for teammates and supporters, but he is not dwelling on past achievements.
“I had a good season... and what? Arsenal won the league last year, I don't think they're gonna be thinking about that. I think now, for them, they want to win it again. I think you have to have that mindset,” he said. “You can look back when you're finished and say ‘I did well’, or you can have a summer where you spend a week looking back. But time doesn’t wait for you. You have to go again now - that's my mentality.”
Ambition and leadership
Dewsbury-Hall wants to move forward and take Everton with him. Already a senior player, he was identified as an emerging dressing room leader by captain James Tarkowski. His ambition is to cement his reputation as a top Premier League player, and he sees his personal goals as entwined with Everton’s climb up the table.
Frustrated by the end of last season, when a seven-game winless streak ended hopes of Europe, he is determined to build on the progress made under David Moyes.
Landmark moments
An early highlight was the 3-2 win at Wolves, where his stunning half-volley capped a display of attacking verve alongside Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye. “That was when I thought: ‘Oh, OK, we could have something good here.’ From that point I started to really settle down,” he told the ECHO from Everton’s pre-season base in the Black Forest.
Other standout moments included a sublime individual goal in a home defeat to Newcastle United, a last-gasp leveller at Brentford, and his curling effort against Manchester United to give Everton a 1-0 win with 10 men at Old Trafford. That goal sparked “the best scene I have ever seen in my career”, he said.
Overcoming injury
Dewsbury-Hall missed more than a month of the campaign with a hamstring injury suffered on his return to Stamford Bridge. “The couple of weeks after I got injured was a dark period because I was playing so well. But I had people around me that helped me. I had good lads at the training ground to help me. And I realised, look, it's part of the game,” he said.
Despite the setback, he rated his season 7.5/10 and insists there is more to come. “Trust me, there is more I can do. There is a lot. I still don’t think I was playing near my best last season. I know what I can produce and that is why I am sitting down with my coaches everyday and doing sessions behind closed doors - to work out what else I can do to be really effective,” he added.
Building on success
Reflecting on his first year at Everton, which he marked with a post on Instagram on Thursday, Dewsbury-Hall said: “I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't a positive season. Coming off the back of a year where I probably didn't play as much I needed to have a season like that, and I knew I would, I knew I could, but it would need to be in the right environment to do it.”
“Luckily, Everton fitted that pretty perfectly. But then it was down to me to try and perform and down to me to try and be effective and help the team. I thought, for large parts of the season, I did that, obviously there were points where I could have maybe done a bit more. But. yeah, it was career high goals in the Premier League for me, goal contributions too. Everything was there and, people forget, I missed nearly a quarter of the season through injury.”
“I feel like if I played the whole season, it could have been even better, but that's football. It was a really good season for me. It was a season which probably put me back in the conversation of being a top player, a top midfielder in the Premier League, which is what I want to be. And it brings us to this point now and it's about building on that. It's all good having one good season, but the top players go again and again and again and again. And that's what I need to do.”
“That's done now for me. Last season was nice. I reflected on it a little bit in the summer. But, as far as I'm concerned, it's finished and it's a clean slate now going into this season.”
