22. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

[Vesper 28,221]

5 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

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

[Blue Armour 4,237]

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 18,305]

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 1,808]

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 16,645]

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 4,237]

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 3,434]

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 28,221]

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 28,221]

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 28,221]

 

[Blue Armour 4,237]

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 2,318]

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.