Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall isn’t looking back at last season, even though his was a good one.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo’s Joe Thomas from Everton’s pre-season base in the Black Forest, the midfielder waved off the idea that a strong debut campaign should count for much now. “I had a good season… and what?” he said, pointing to how Arsenal’s title winners wouldn’t be resting on last year either.
It was a blunt line from a player with plenty to be pleased about. Eight goals and four assists were a career-best return in his first season at Everton, helping keep the club in the European conversation for much of the campaign.
But Dewsbury-Hall rates his own form lower than the numbers suggest — 7.5 out of 10, by his own count — and has spent the summer working privately with coaches on where he fell short.
A floor, not a ceiling
That gap between output and self-assessment is interesting as he heads into 2026/27. Everton’s season fell apart late on, a seven-game winless run costing them any hope of European qualification, and it’s against that backdrop that Dewsbury-Hall is setting his new targets.
He’s not treating last season as something to build on gradually. He’s treating it as a starting point he wants to leave behind quickly, tying his own progress into where the club needs to go next.
There’s an intriguing leadership shift here too, easy to miss behind the data.
James Tarkowski named him this week as one of the players stepping up as a dressing-room leader — good for someone who arrived just a year ago after struggling for game time at Chelsea. Going from a fringe player in London to a senior voice on Merseyside inside twelve months says a lot about his temperament.
Setbacks and a signature moment
His 2025-26 wasn’t without disruption. A hamstring injury picked up on his return to Stamford Bridge cost him a month over a busy Christmas period, breaking up momentum built through performances like a stoppage-time equaliser at Brentford and a solo goal against Newcastle.
But he came back into form in time for the season’s biggest moment — a winner at Old Trafford with Everton down to ten men.
Yet, the goals and the assists kind of disguise the main point. What stands out is the mentality: last season is closed, done, and is seen as no reference point for this new one.
For a squad still chasing consistency across a full campaign, having a senior midfielder rule out coasting based on last year’s numbers is a positive sign.
Whether that mindset holds up past August, rather than fading away, as last season did, will be the acid test.
[Read the full interview at the Liverpool Echo]
