Dewsbury-Hall is next local lad to be part of City’s squad
KIERNAN Dewsbury-Hall will be in Leicester City’s squad for the upcoming season after Brendan Rodgers said the midfielder had “really taken my eye”.
The Shepshed-born 22-yearold grabbed the first goal of City’s pre-season campaign when he started the comeback in the 3-3 draw with QPR.
It topped off another fine runout for the midfielder, who showed his promise on loan in the Championship with Luton last season.
With competition for midfield places high at City – Rodgers also has Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, Boubakary Soumare, Hamza Choudhury, Papy Mendy and Dennis Praet to choose from – it seemed the pressure was on Dewsbury-Hall to prove to the manager why he deserved a place in the 25-man squad.
With a fortnight to go until the Premier League season begins, Rodgers confirmed DewsburyHall had earned his place, and now wanted to see him flourish the same way other local lads like Harvey Barnes have done.
“Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been outstanding,” Rodgers said in his post-match press conference following the 3-3 draw with QPR.
“I’ve been really impressed with him over the course of the pre-season. He’s really taken my eye, I’ve got to say.
“That’s always up to the player (how big a season he has), but he’ll definitely be staying, he’ll definitely be in the squad.
“We saw his talent but he had got to 21 years of age and he had never played league football.
“So I felt that when I played him against Brentford in the FA Cup (in January 2020)… he’s a local boy so he’s desperate to play for Leicester, so he got that little taste of it in the FA Cup.
“Then we sent him out on loan, he went to Blackpool, he did brilliantly at Luton, and he’s come back now a different player.
“He’s stronger, more mature, he has a winning mentality.
“I’ve been really impressed with him, not just over the course of pre-season; we took him back in at the end of last season for a couple of weeks and you could see the difference in him.
“He’s another young boy from the city and the ranks of the club and hopefully we can develop him the way some of the others have developed.”
Dewsbury-Hall’s inclusion in the squad could mean City have four players in their senior set-up this coming season that grew up within the city or county and were developed in the club’s academy.
Barnes hails from Countesthorpe, Choudhury from Loughborough, and left-back Luke Thomas comes from Syston.
Other homegrown youngsters like winger Tawanda Maswanhise and centre-back Ben Nelson have also featured in pre-season.