22. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

[Vesper 28,800]

5 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

our record with players from clubs like Leicester and Monaco is horrible

[Blue Armour 4,278]

20 hours ago, Strike said:

I am just glad they touched the midfield since the rumours were mainly about a CB and ST. He could complement Enzo and Caicedo in the middle and is an upgrade on Connor. No complaints. 

 

Not to mention, our new manager utilized him effectively last season.

All the more reason to think that this piece will have a good chance to integrate seamlessly into the team.

Just hope people curb their expectations during pre-season.

I'm not expecting him to output crazy numbers. Rather, he would provide a platform for the rest of the midfield to succeed in controlling the game.

[Pizy 18,368]

Kinda concerning that the club have now posted 2 nearly 10 minute training videos these past 2 weeks and KDH hasn’t been spotted in either of them. Haven’t seen any training pics with him either other than one where he was on a Peloton. 

Ffs, don’t tell me the Chelsea curse has struck again and he’s fucking injured already. But what else could it be? The club would normally want to show off the new players a bunch.

[TheHulk 1,855]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Kinda concerning that the club have now posted 2 nearly 10 minute training videos these past 2 weeks and KDH hasn’t been spotted in either of them. Haven’t seen any training pics with him either other than one where he was on a Peloton. 

Ffs, don’t tell me the Chelsea curse has struck again and he’s fucking injured already. But what else could it be? The club would normally want to show off the new players a bunch.

Pretty sure I saw some pics with him in training, doubt he got injured and we wouldn't know from sources.

[Fulham Broadway 16,841]

New Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca will "surprise people" by quickly getting the club challenging for major honours and qualifying for the Champions League, says Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

The 25-year-old followed his former manager to Stamford Bridge in a £30m move last month after starring in his Championship-winning Leicester City team, which earned promotion to the Premier League last season.

"The manager was a big catalyst in wanting me to come," Dewsbury-Hall told BBC Sport.

"I knew from Leicester, a club that went down and had a lot of problems, how he managed to galvanise that, if everyone manages to buy into the system.

"I genuinely think in a short space of time we can be pushing for minimum top four - but more than that.

"He may be unknown for a lot of people, but he is top, top level. He will surprise a lot of people."

Fucking hope so

[Blue Armour 4,278]

8 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

New Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca will "surprise people" by quickly getting the club challenging for major honours and qualifying for the Champions League, says Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

The 25-year-old followed his former manager to Stamford Bridge in a £30m move last month after starring in his Championship-winning Leicester City team, which earned promotion to the Premier League last season.

"The manager was a big catalyst in wanting me to come," Dewsbury-Hall told BBC Sport.

"I knew from Leicester, a club that went down and had a lot of problems, how he managed to galvanise that, if everyone manages to buy into the system.

"I genuinely think in a short space of time we can be pushing for minimum top four - but more than that.

"He may be unknown for a lot of people, but he is top, top level. He will surprise a lot of people."

Fucking hope so

Hoping KDH can also surprise a lot of people by surpassing expectations.

I think he will.

[robsblubot 3,504]

11 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

qualifying for the Champions League

Qualifying for the Champions League used to be a lot cheaper back in the day. 🙂

No wait, didn't Aston Villa qualify for the Champions League? https://www.transfermarkt.us/aston-villa/transfers/verein/405 

[Vesper 28,800]

9 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Hoping KDH can also surprise a lot of people by surpassing expectations.

I think he will.

me too

[Vesper 28,800]

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: ‘Will Enzo Maresca surprise people at Chelsea? Definitely’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5660209/2024/07/26/dewsbury-hall-Chelsea-maresca-interview/

It did not take long for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to be employed in an unusual position after joining Chelsea from Leicester City this month.

When most players move clubs, they approach new team-mates for insight into how the head coach operates, so they can make a positive impression. In Dewsbury-Hall’s case, it has been the other way around. Players are coming to him.

Nobody at Chelsea knows what Enzo Maresca is like as a head coach better than he does. Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia had a brief taste while he was in charge of Manchester City’s under-21s, but Dewsbury-Hall was a key part of the Italian’s Leicester squad that won the Championship title last season. That experience is giving the 25-year-old midfielder, who cost Chelsea £30million ($38.6m), quite the advantage at pre-season training.

“It is quite weird but it has helped me settle in,” Dewsbury-Hall says. “You are getting lads coming up to me and asking questions. I am more than happy to let them know what my opinions and experiences of him (Maresca) are.

‘They will gather their own opinions week by week, but it has helped me a lot because I can have more conversations with people and get a really good bond with the lads. I have fitted in really well.”

His close bond with the boss has been the source of some gentle banter, too, about him being a bit of a teacher’s pet.

“I have had that a couple of times where he has shown clips of last season to help get his messages across and I feature in a couple,” Dewsbury-Hall adds with a smile. “Some of the lads have had a laugh and joke, I don’t mind — it’s all fun and games.”

Anyone privy to Maresca’s training session on the eve of the first friendly of their ongoing U.S. pre-season tour against League One side Wrexham this week will have seen that, once the 44-year-old takes charge of a drill, it is no laughing matter. Instructions are barked loudly, his arms pointing in the direction he wants the ball or a particular player to go. From the outside, Maresca comes across as a very intense individual.

But has Dewsbury-Hall noticed any changes from Maresca?

“Not an awful lot, he has come in exactly like he was at Leicester — confident. He is probably more confident here than when he was at Leicester. I don’t know if that was because he has a year under his belt and we did really well at Leicester.

“He knows exactly what he wants and needs. He has something about him where you respect him. From the first day I saw him at Chelsea it was straight back to work, working on the philosophy of what we want to do this year.

“He is massive for that (players’ fitness). A lot of people look at him and think he is a tactician on the ball but off the ball, he knows exactly what he wants: he wants players who can run and can work hard. You need to not only be good on the ball but fit as well.

“When he has the lads in meetings, it is time to work. He has got an aura. You listen to what he is saying and he can be very strict. Then he’s got a gentle, human side to him, where you can go and talk to him as a person.

“He was a player for 20 years, so he knows what it is like. That is really good.”

What Chelsea supporters want to know is whether Maresca can succeed where the previous head coaches employed by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium have failed.

Thomas Tuchel, who was at the helm when the American owners arrived in the summer of 2022, Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino have all lost their jobs. The club have not won a trophy during this turbulent period, and are also yet to qualify for the Champions League.

The reaction to Maresca’s appointment has been mixed. The only other head coaching job on his resume is a disastrous 14-game spell with Parma in the Italian second division at the start of 2021-22, but he was an assistant under Pep Guardiola the following season as Manchester City won the treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup before getting the Leicester job that summer.

Dewsbury-Hall is convinced Chelsea have hired the right man.

Some of you will read that and perhaps see it as more ammunition for his team-mates’ teacher’s pet jokes, particularly after the Premier League side only managed an unconvincing 2-2 draw in that friendly with Wrexham, needing a late Lesley Ugochukwu goal to save them from defeat. But Dewsbury-Hall, who did not feature in that game in Santa Clara, California, as he’s working his way towards full match fitness after a minor injury at the end of last season, has no doubts the appointment will pay off.

Being quickly reunited with Maresca was a key reason behind leaving Leicester after 17 years there. That and the belief Chelsea are on the verge of becoming a major force in the game again.

“At Leicester — a club that went down, were really low on confidence and had a lot of problems — he managed to galvanise that and change it to what Leicester did last season,” Dewsbury-Hall explains. “I don’t see why that can’t happen here if everyone buys into the system. We can be pushing for, minimum, top four, but more than that because I can see the foundations are set, the squad is at a high level. So if it is nurtured in the right way, it could be good.

“Will he (Maresca) surprise people? Definitely. Look, I do not want to be banging on saying we’re going to be doing this or that — he is almost unknown to a lot of people — but I can go off working with him and say my opinions and I think he is top, top level.

“Within a week (of Maresca starting work at Leicester last summer) all the players were sold. I was convinced. I am getting the same feedback here (at Chelsea) with the lads.

“I felt a bit stupid (when he first started being coached by Maresca at Leicester) because I thought I knew a lot about football. But he was teaching me things on a daily basis that I did not really know before. They were just little tactical tweaks — where you position yourself at certain times of games when players have the ball. It might sound little but in football, they can be so important.

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“(Under Maresca) when a player gets the ball, he knows exactly where his team-mates are. You do not even need to look. Whereas other times when you play football, it might be more off the cuff — you have got the ball and are not sure what to do. You know the plan, exactly where everybody is, and it makes it free and easier.

“It was going from understanding not so much to understanding everything on the pitch. You could see that for Leicester last season — flowing football. It was a joy to watch. This season, it will go up a level because Chelsea are a top, top, top club.

“There are the profiles in there (the Chelsea squad) to suit the system he wants to play and we have seen it in training already. We have only been doing it for two or three weeks but the combination plays are really slick and tidy. That’s after two weeks.

“I remember he said to us at Leicester, ‘Imagine after six months or a year, and you will see (where we’ll be)’. There might be teething problems at the start but it will improve. Hopefully, by the end of the season, it will be really fluid and a high level.”

Brighton had hoped to sign Dewsbury-Hall this summer before Chelsea made their intentions clear.

Instead of heading to the south coast, he became the latest Leicester player to make a big-money move to Stamford Bridge. The current squad includes Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana, while N’Golo Kante (2016-23) and Danny Drinkwater (2017-22) also left for Chelsea after helping Leicester to a shock title triumph in the 2015-16 season, albeit the latter pair experienced hugely contrasting fortunes at the London club.

Obviously, Dewsbury-Hall wants to follow in fellow midfielder Kante’s footsteps most of all. Kante is remembered as one of Chelsea’s best-ever players, helping them win the Premier League in 2017 and the Champions League four years later. His success came as no surprise to Dewsbury-Hall, who used to clean the France international’s boots while a youngster at Leicester.

“He did (tip well) actually,” Dewsbury-Hall recalls. “I don’t think he understood the concept of it before, but a few of the lads in the first team told him it was good manners or a good gesture to tip at Christmas. He might have gone to the cash point that night and brought it in the next day! He was quite generous, so I thank whoever told him that. I did a good job, though… the boots were clean!

“He is a phenomenal player, one of the best Premier League midfielders ever. I saw a tweet I posted when he signed (for Chelsea), I said, ‘Now he’s gone there, they are going to win the league’, and that was the year Chelsea won the league. I was one of his biggest fans. To have any similarity to his journey at Chelsea would be a major success, because he is top tier.

“I was at a point in my career where I wanted to test myself at the next level. This felt like the right time and I would not have left Leicester for a sideways move — it had to be a top move.

“I am a completely different player now coming back into the Premier League than I was when I was playing in it before. I have evolved as a player and as a person. If I made those leaps in the first year (with Maresca), then I feel excited to see what can happen in the years to come.

“It is going to be a surreal moment when we go back to the King Power Stadium (in late November) having played so many games there. I have a good relationship with the fans. If I score against them (Leicester), I won’t celebrate. I wish them the best of luck for this season.”

One of Dewsbury-Hall’s other motivations for choosing Chelsea is the hope he can emulate Palmer’s impressive 2023-24 debut season with them and be rewarded with a call-up to the senior England squad.

Yet to represent England at any level, he says: “I would be lying if I said it wasn’t in my aims for the next 12 months. I have always dreamt of playing for England and always hoped I’d be at a club where I’m playing well and getting picked. I have my aims for Chelsea of course — winning trophies and playing well — but if it can get me in contention for the national team, it would be a dream.

“Cole (Palmer, who had only made three Premier League starts for Manchester City when he moved last summer) is the perfect example of that. He is absolutely flying and went on to make a great impact at the European Championship.

“To do something similar, to follow in those footsteps, would be ideal.”

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[Vesper 28,800]

 

[Blue Armour 4,278]

4 hours ago, Vesper said:

 

Genuinely think he was the missing piece from our midfield last season.

I'm not sure if it will be enough to trump the big sides, but it should make us more consistent for a top 4 finish.

Barring a disaster at the back with our CB selection, of course.

Edited August 3 by Blue Armour

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

4 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Barring a disaster at the back with our CB selection, of course.

For me, it's the defensive issues and GK issues that will cost us a place in the top 4.   I'm not convinced with Sanchez at all. 

All of our rivals have at least 1 CB who is the leader at the back.  (Dias/Stones/Saliba/Gabriel/Romero/VVD/Lisandro).

We have 4 players but none of them are leaders and Thiago Silva isn't there this season to 'coach' them. 

[Fulham Broadway 16,841]

Enzo Maresca has told Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall that he must fight for his place as he is no longer 'the main player' he was at Leicester.

The midfielder followed his former Foxes boss to Stamford Bridge in what seemed a strange deal at the time. 

Very strange when you consider we offloaded Conor...then again it was all about balancing the books

[Mário César 975]

selling gallagher and getting this guy was one of the worst decisions I can remember seeing

this is going to be like kdb and salah 

[Fulham Broadway 16,841]

1 hour ago, Mário César said:

selling gallagher and getting this guy was one of the worst decisions I can remember seeing

this is going to be like kdb and salah 

Club have previous - new owners tend to get rid of Chelsea homegrown fans favourites, like they cant stand the adulation - Bates got rid of Hutch, Ossie and Hudson ambassadors for the club

[nyikolajevics 2,576]

4 hours ago, Mário César said:

selling gallagher and getting this guy was one of the worst decisions I can remember seeing

this is going to be like kdb and salah 

Salah and KDB ended up generational, record breaking players, all-time Premier League greats. I believe Gallagher will sooner or later return to an other Premier League club, but can't really see him being such influental. He is a solid player, a very good player, but that's it. Having to sell him to balance the books is also ok. What we should be concerned about is that the guy we spent 30 million pounds on not being any better than some of the midfielders we already have(and payed for), like Andrey Santos.

I believe KDH will apply himself and turn out to be a good squad member, but so far very week, gotta admit that.

[Vesper 28,800]

5 hours ago, Mário César said:

selling gallagher and getting this guy was one of the worst decisions I can remember seeing

this is going to be like kdb and salah 

no

Conor is not remotely close in terms of level to those 2

I am not a fangirl yet of KDH, but I will give him time

I listed a tonne of CMFs I would have bought before him

but Maresca thinks there is something there that can translate to the EPL

 

[Vesper 28,800]

Chelsea’s busy midweeks are the perfect opportunity for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5792433/2024/09/25/kiernan-dewsbury-hall-Chelsea-analysis/

Right now, being part of Chelsea’s ‘B team’ is exactly where Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall needs to be.

That might sound like a strange thing to say after Dewsbury-Hall completed his first 90 minutes for nearly four weeks in the 5-0 Carabao Cup victory over League Two visitors Barrow on Tuesday. It would certainly be understandable if he wanted to kick on from here, beginning with Brighton this weekend. The midfielder has started just three times for Chelsea this season, none of which have come in the Premier League (the other two came in the Conference League qualifying play-off against Servette). He has accumulated only 44 minutes from three substitute appearances for the club in England’s top division.

No signing wants to be part of the second string when they move to a new team. Dewsbury-Hall rightly spoke with a lot of hope and ambition when he sat down with the media in July for his first interview since joining from Leicester for £30million ($40.2m). For example, he talked about how performing for Chelsea could make his dreams of making the senior England squad a reality.

But he has had it pretty tough since. He has not been helped by starting pre-season training still working back to his best physical condition following an ankle injury sustained at the end of the Championship title-winning campaign with Leicester. Illness also denied him the possibility of featuring against Bournemouth earlier this month, a few weeks after being left on the bench against Crystal Palace before the international break.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca, who he played for at Leicester last season, said in his press conference on the eve of the Barrow match how Dewsbury-Hall has found the realities of playing for a better team something to get used to. He explained: “I’m very happy with Kiernan, but we also need to understand that Kiernan was the main player at Leicester. He has arrived here and he is not the main player. For him, for any player (in this situation) in the world, you need to adapt mentally. But I don’t have any doubts for Kiernan.”

To give you an idea of just how much Dewsbury-Hall was key at his previous club last season compared to his place in the Chelsea pecking order, he featured in all but four of Leicester’s games in all competitions, starting 43 out of their 53 matches. He had 26 goal involvements (12 goals and 14 assists) and was voted the Midlands side’s supporters’ player of the year and players’ player of the year.

But a lack of game time is not the only challenge Dewsbury-Hall now has to deal with. The 26-year-old’s arrival at Stamford Bridge was met with an element of negativity from some Chelsea supporters because it coincided with all the uncertainty surrounding the future of fan-favourite Conor Gallagher. Given they played in similar positions, the transfer was seen as a big signal being sent to Gallagher that his replacement was now in the building. A month later, Gallagher was sold to Atletico Madrid.

Chelsea did not regard it as a like-for-like situation. They saw Gallagher as more of a defensive No 6/8, whereas Dewsbury-Hall plays further forward as an attacking No 8/10. Whether people believe there is a big difference between their roles as players or not, it is a tough act for Dewsbury-Hall to follow.

Gallagher, who is 17 months younger than him and already an established full England international, made the most appearances of any Chelsea player last season (50) and scored a credible seven goals. He has started his Atletico career in fine form, too, with a couple of goals in just five appearances. Inevitably, there is a sense of regret about how things have turned out among the Chelsea following who wanted him to remain. Seeing the footage of Gallagher already making an impact in Spain will just make that section of the fanbase even more convinced a mistake has been made and therefore focus more of a critical eye in Dewsbury-Hall’s direction.

But Dewsbury-Hall should be given a chance to make his mark, like any new signing. Being part of the ‘midweek’ group (for the short term at least) will allow him to begin doing that without the same pressure and expectation he would be under if he was in the ‘A team’. For those featuring in the first XI at the weekend, the need for Chelsea to maintain their challenge for a finish in the Premier League’s top four this season is much more intense.

Let me explain further. Firstly, it is difficult to get into Maresca’s ‘best team’ as it is. After the 3-0 Premier League away win against West Ham on Saturday, who would you drop out of Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo in midfield or players further forward, such as Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho?

Dewsbury-Hall is understandably still having to work on his match fitness and confidence levels. Against Barrow, while Chelsea began quickly and were 3-0 up inside 30 minutes, he was finding it hard to get into the game. Late on in the first half, only Chelsea’s goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen had touched the ball fewer times than him.

However, the longer he was left on the pitch, the more involved he became. According to whoscored.com, no Chelsea player had more shots on goal by full time (four) and that is despite striker Christopher Nkunku scoring a hat-trick (three goals from three attempts). Dewsbury-Hall ended up with the seventh-most touches (48) out of the 16 players Maresca used. You could see him growing in belief and the noises from the stands were more encouraging. But at the same time, this was against ‘only’ fourth-tier Barrow.

What is beneficial for Dewsbury-Hall is the Barrow fixture is the first of a minimum of 10 midweek games on the club’s calendar up to the end of the year. The opposition in the majority of those matches won’t be the strongest either, which means it will be an ideal opportunity to find some better form. There are six games in the group phase of the Conference League, a fourth-round tie in the Carabao Cup, and Premier League meetings with Southampton and Ipswich in December. This busy period will put an extra strain on the squad and surely lead to Dewsbury-Hall being in the starting XI on a much more regular basis.

Maresca confirmed as much when asked by The Athletic how the intense schedule can benefit Dewsbury-Hall. “Absolutely,” he replied. “Like him and all the players that are not starting in the Premier League, they are going to start in the Conference League or the Carabao Cup.”

His presence means another highly-rated attacking midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka, who looked good from the bench against Barrow, will struggle to play much.

It has not been an easy start to life at Chelsea for Dewsbury-Hall, but like with many things about Maresca’s team, things are looking up.