Dewsbury-Hall joins Everton on five-year deal

Chelsea signed Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester last summer in a deal worth £30m

Everton have completed the signing of midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea for a fee of about £28m.

The fee for the 26-year-old is an initial £24m, with a further £3-4m due in add-ons.

Dewsbury-Hall has signed a five-year contract with the Toffees until the end of June 2030.

The Leicester City academy graduate is Everton's fifth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Charly Alcaraz, Thierno Barry, Mark Travers and Adam Aznou.

"I'm honestly very excited, my family's excited. There's a real buzz about this. It feels right for me," said Dewsbury-Hall.

"So just that alone gives me the motivation and the extra determination to show everybody, to prove a point and have a really successful time here."

Did Dewsbury-Hall fail at Chelsea?

Dewsbury-Hall adapted well to Maresca's system at Chelsea, but not to playing a bit-part role as Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez all featured ahead of him in the midfield pecking order.

Although Dewsbury-Hall started only twice in the Premier League in his sole season at Chelsea, he scored four times in the Uefa Conference League and came off the bench to set up Jadon Sancho's goal in the 4-1 triumph over Real Betis in May's final.

He was used mainly as a substitute in the Fifa Club World Cup, but scored his fifth goal for the club in a 4-1 victory over Benfica and appeared as a substitute in the 3-0 final success over Paris St-Germain.

He was a decent performer when given a chance for the Stamford Bridge side, but became part of a trend of players moving quickly in and then out again.

The sale of Dewsbury-Hall is particularly important as Uefa's recent punishment for financial control violations suggests Chelsea must sell players from their last Conference League squad to ensure a "positive transfer balance" this summer.

If not, they can't register new signings like Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap by September for the Champions League.

A source of goals from midfield?

Everton boss David Moyes has been vocal about his need for fresh faces this summer and the addition of Dewsbury-Hall would add much needed depth and quality to their midfield.

The 26-year-old was an ever-present for Chelsea in their successful Conference League campaign, but ultimately struggled to force his way into the Premier League side.

He made two top-flight starts for the Blues and his total of 13 league appearances amounted to just 256 minutes of playing time.

But it will be Dewsbury-Hall's returns during Leicester's 2023-24 promotion season that will be of particular interest to Moyes as he looks to replace the important attacking contributions of Abdoulaye Doucoure from central areas.

The box-to-box midfielder notched 12 goals and 14 assists for the Foxes as they won the second-tier title and that tally has only been bettered three times in the last 10 Championship seasons.