Talk is cheap in football. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall knows it, Everton know it, and the club’s supporters certainly know it after last season’s collapse turned a promising position into another finish in 13th place for the second consecutive year.
That is why his comments ahead of the new Premier League campaign matter. Everton were three points off a Champions League qualification place on March 21 after beating Chelsea 3-0, and then somehow managed to fail to win any of their last seven matches. That is not a minor wobble. That is the sort of end to a season that leaves a club staring at the same uncomfortable question all summer: how did it slip away so quickly?
Dewsbury-Hall did not hide from it. Speaking to Roger Bennett at a Men in Blazers live event at Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of Everton’s season opener against Crystal Palace, he admitted it was a “very frustrating” finish and said the squad had spent a lot of time thinking about the lessons. More importantly, he framed the lesson in the blunt way a club in this position probably needs to hear: nothing is handed to you, and being close counts for nothing if you do not actually cross the line.
That is the right message. Everton do not need polishing right now; they need urgency. Dewsbury-Hall’s point about complacency is especially sharp because it goes straight to the problem that can creep into a side after a decent run. One or two wins can make a season look entirely different, but the Premier League does not care about almost. As he said, everyone is competitive, and the margin between a push for Europe and a muddling finish can vanish quickly.
There is a reason his confidence should be taken seriously, though. This is not a player hiding behind empty optimism. The 27-year-old arrived at Everton for £25million last August after a solitary season at Chelsea in which he made 13 Premier League appearances and did not complete a 90-minute league match. He knows what it looks like when a move does not quite settle properly, and he also knows what it feels like to come into a new season with something to prove.
So his insistence that the squad is “super-excited” and “super-positive” is more than routine pre-match noise. He says the players have come back sharp, that the competition for places is healthy, and that he expects Everton to be in a good place if a couple more arrivals come in. That is sensible squad-building logic rather than grandstanding. You do not want anyone assuming a starting spot is already theirs. You want pressure. You want standards.
David Moyes will know that as well as anyone, because Everton’s summer cannot be judged on upbeat interviews alone. The club missed European qualification after being so close in March, and the new season will quickly reveal whether the late collapse was a temporary breakdown or a warning sign that has not yet been properly fixed.
Dewsbury-Hall says he is “champing at the bit” and genuinely confident about what Everton can do. Fine. Now the only answer that matters is on the pitch. Last season proved how quickly a promising position can disappear. This season has to prove that the lesson actually stuck.
