The Everton midfielder has been discussing his feelings from when City were relegated in 2022-23, with comparisons to be made following this season’s shock fall into League One
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been a star for Everton this season(Image: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
While this is Leicester City’s second successive relegation, the fall into League One bears more resemblance with the demise in 22-23.
That too was a season where a handsomely-paid squad for the division they were in majorly underperformed and suffered a shock fall down the standings.
As Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall said as he made an appearance on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, City were targeting Europe but couldn’t even finish 17th.
“It was such a tough time, the hardest time of my career so far,” Dewsbury-Hall said. “We went into the season aiming for Europe, we’d finished eighth the year before.
“When we were in a situation where we were fighting relegation with the team we had, it was almost like: ‘What’s going on?’
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“For me, it was even harder because I was an academy graduate and I was playing for my boyhood club. It meant a little bit more to me. It was so hard to deal with.
“That’s why when we did get relegated I wanted to stay at the club and help them try to get back to where they were. I didn’t want to leave on a bad note. It just gave me that motivation to try to help me again.”
And he did do that. Dewsbury-Hall was City’s best player as they finished top of the table and returned to the Premier League.
But do City have anybody to take on that Dewsbury-Hall role this time? Is there anybody in the squad with the strength of feeling towards the club that will stick around and carry them to promotion?
There are plenty of homegrown players in the ranks, and while many of those are youngsters who don’t bear the guilt for this campaign, there are more four senior players in Luke Thomas, Jakub Stolarczyk, Ben Nelson and Hamza Choudhury who have played a good amount of minutes this term.
But do they have the same unrelenting desire for atonement that showed itself in Dewsbury-Hall’s performances?
Stolarczyk spoke sincerely about how he feels he has a debt to the club for giving a teenager from Poland a chance. Choudhury and Thomas are both Leicester born, Choudhury one of very few to greet supporters outside the King Power Stadium after relegation.
But any of them delivering performances on the level of Dewsbury-Hall seems unlikely, in part because of the positions they play. They’re all defensive players and so can’t influence matches in the key attacking areas like Dewsbury-Hall could.
What made the Everton midfielder so good for City in that Championship season was that he had the quality to make a difference in and around the box, but he also had an unrelenting energy that set the tone for performances. It is more difficult for defensive players, and especially a goalkeeper, to be a catalyst in that way.
The issues don’t end there. The need to sell is much greater now. Selling James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Timothy Castagne was enough. Three money-making departures won’t cut it this time.
Nelson is a strong contender to go as one of City’s most valuable assets. Choudhury may attract interest from Sheffield United again. Stolarczyk was a target for Norwich last summer. The City squad as it is could be decimated.
So City may need to look elsewhere for their Dewsbury-Hall. Louis Page has similar attributes and is another local lad, but to expect a player who turns 18 in July to be the main man and lead the club is too much.
Once City begin building a new squad, an all-action midfielder should be brought into the building, but while they may buy into the project, it would be difficult for them to have the same strength of feeling towards the club, that desire to restore them to their former glory. To have that love for a club takes time.
So, unfortunately, City may not have anybody who can take on that Dewsbury-Hall role. Energetic, high-quality, forward-thinking players with an infectious work-rate and a deep love for the club are hard to come by.
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