A new King? Why I’m backing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to step up and take the crown
An Academy graduate ghosting into the box to score in the Championship? Helen Thompson can’t help but feel we’ve seen Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s Sunday special before.
This summer saw another captain leave Leicester City. That’s three in as many years, not that you feel we'll actually miss Jonny Evans that much given how little he seemed to care about relegation. Still, it left us all with some time to dwell and reset. The void of leadership we’ve had for a while played on my mind a lot.
Especially coming back to the Championship, I found myself thinking about Andy King among the other leaders we lost in that duration. How losing a Leicester legend impacted us and his journey to claiming that title. About how the Championship turned him from boy to man and the incredible career he had with us, from the bottom to the top.
I've been pondering a lot how one of our current players reminds me of Kingy and why it feels like it's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's turn now to follow in those footsteps. Assuming we can keep hold of our man.
The coming of A King
Cast your memory back to 2010. It's a Championship season, Nigel Pearson is the manager and we're at the Ricoh Arena for the M69 derby. Andy King, Leicester's academy graduate (not yet crowned Mr Leicester but it was coming) steps up and bags the goal to bring a point back to Leicester. With a classic celebration to boot, cupping his ear to the home crowd.
This was very much the pivotal season of a run that would see Kingy linked with bigger clubs. He'd played a sizeable role in our League One season but I remember 2010/11 as the year he really came into his own. The year I told anybody who'd listen that he'd be our captain one day.
2010/11 was the year King added more goals to his game and really stood out. He was our top scorer with 16 goals, a key factor for the Foxes, and something you've heard people say Dewsbury-Hall needs to do for a while now. He and King are not the same player - there's more natural strength to Dewsbury-Hall for example. But the similarities lie in the homegrown connection, their desire to attack and take a shot and possibly most similarly in their temperament and mindset.
There are a few other parallels too. It was Sven-Goran Eriksson who really elevated and recognised Andy King's leadership potential, and if the end of the Coventry game is anything to go by Enzo Maresca (who channelled Pep with his arm around players and long chats) may be about to do the same for Dewsbury-Hall.
For anything and everything that Sven did that either bamboozled us or financially cost us, I'll always be thankful for him developing King and making him our captain. King embodied every quality I love in a footballer; hard-working, passionate, forward-thinking, professional and he always came across as an intelligent, good man who was happy to give anybody his time. A lot of those same qualities that we're starting to see more in Dewsbury-Hall. There was a real sense of pride in playing for Leicester with King and I see the same with Dewsbury-Hall.
For a while King was our longest-serving player and the fact that we were denied a testimonial for him first by Covid and now by time and convenience will never sit well with me. Leicester fans should have had a chance to give him the farewell he deserved. Then again, we have been denied testimonials for a few players in recent years who've hit the ten-year mark. They seem, sadly, to be a thing of the past.
A new Cov-onation?
Fast forward to 2023 and the M69 derby is finally back. Unfortunately, too many years have passed for Andy King to be a staple. You'd be forgiven then, for having to do a double take in thinking you've seen this scenario play out before when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall netted the equalising goal, a glancing header that had all the trademarks of a King goal.
Like King, he's an academy graduate and has one additional advantage, he actually is a boy raised in Leicestershire rather than being brought in from another club at an early age.
You'd also be forgiven for finding your mind wandering back to those years with King when Dewsbury-Hall stepped up and notched his second, a well-taken shot to sink Coventry City at the King Power.
It wasn't just the way it was worked but the fact that he stepped up when needed; how often did King use to do that type of thing for us? It was the dream start to a season for a local lad and one to build confidence after the soul-destroying lows of last year.
People like passion from a footballer. It's a word that polarises people and can be overused. It also doesn't favour those quieter, reserved players who aren't as publically emotional (see Harvey Barnes).
But with Dewsbury-Hall there's a believable element to the passion you get from him on the pitch and in his interviews. It's shown this calendar year in two starkly contrasting moments. Watching his joy and excitement to have beaten Coventry, and to have been the one to inflict the loss, was the polar opposite to how he looked for much of the final three months during last season.
A fresh start
Between a slight dip in form, an injury and then just not starting for a while (not his fault - see Brendan Rodgers for that), he can't be blamed too much. There was a shot of him after the ridiculous Fulham loss and he looked like one of the only players who not only cared but maybe who understood the gravity of the situation when so many others were still claiming everything would be okay.
Nobody (in the public domain anyway) saw or heard from him for a few weeks post-relegation, putting me in mind of a line from a documentary about arguably today's biggest pop star, Taylor Swift, when she disappeared offline because she felt it was what people wanted. When Dewsbury-Hall did finally say something, he was one of the few to apologise to the fans and you felt that he wanted to stay and fight.
Maresca clearly likes Dewsbury-Hall and really, wouldn't you? He hasn't always been the complete, finished product for us but his workrate is tough to beat, he's strong, he doesn't shy away from a tackle and much like Andy King, he likes to take the ball forward.
Adding goals to his game is what you'd expect from a player in his role and if we can be more positive and attack-minded as a team, he should flourish. The big takeaway from the Coventry game is how much he tried to make things happen. Case in point - one of his goals started with him defending in our own box to get the ball moving.
In the past perhaps he hasn't always made the right decisions with his passes or moves but having a different, experienced player alongside him in Harry Winks is a budding partnership and somebody different to learn from again. A player like Kelechi Iheanacho, who will create space for him to move into, should boost his opportunities in front of goal too.
Enzo’s arsenal
Having a manager who believes in him and the team and who doesn't keep publicly bemoaning a lack of quality can't hurt either. He strikes you as a confidence player who needs that belief. Hearing an entire stadium singing your name must be the cherry on an already impressive cake.
Make no mistake, this season is Dewsbury-Hall's for the taking. One to show he can lock down consistently good performances. Perhaps not a coming of age season, because he isn't a teenager, but a chance to show he can be a leader and the main weapon in Enzo's arsenal.
If the statistics from the Coventry game can be matched - 83% pass completion rates, 8 shots and 3 big chances created - he is going to be the beating heart of our attacking play.
I know not everybody is convinced but for me, he is our future captain assuming we can hold onto him and I'm really excited to see him taking the challenge on.
I picked Dewsbury-Hall out as the player who could be key for us in The Fosse Way’s pre-season predictions and game one was a start in the right direction.
