Enzo Maresca says £29m player is 'going to get better' after Chelsea exit

Enzo Maresca has praised the former Chelsea player he sold last summer (Photo: Getty)

Enzo Maresca is certain that a former Chelsea player he sold for a loss will only ‘get better’ after joining a Premier League rival.

As has been the case in the past few seasons, there was a great deal of change in the Chelsea dressing room last summer, with 10 players signed and 16 sold.

Among those to leave Stamford Bridge was Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who departed for Everton just a year after arriving from Leicester City in a £30million transfer.

The midfielder was a key player under Maresca as the Foxes won the Championship in 2023/24 and was one of the Italian’s first signings for the Blues.

However, while an ever-present during the triumphant Conference League campaign, Dewsbury-Hall barely featured in the Premier League , starting only two games and playing just 258 minutes in total.

Almost instantly after his arrival, he was being linked with a transfer away and ahead of this season he secured a £29m move to Everton, where he has since thrived.

With four goals and three assists in 15 appearances, the 27-year-old has already nearly matched his total goal contributions for Chelsea and has the chance to get revenge against his old club when the Toffees travel to west London on Saturday.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has five goal contribution in his last five games for Everton (Photo: Getty)

‘I didn’t have any doubt about Kiernan,’ a smiling Maresca said in his pre-match press conference when asked if he was ‘happy’ to see his former player thriving on Merseyside.

‘I know that the more he’s going to play, he’s going to be better. But again, with us, he was good all season, working hard. The time that he played, he was doing well.

‘But yeah, we have also good players, so the competition was a big competition for him. I have no doubt that in the moment that he was able to play more games, he was doing well.’

Dewsbury-Hall won the Club World Cup and Conference League with Chelsea (Photo: Getty)

Dewsbury-Hall has played his best football while in a more advanced role but found opportunities limited in that position at Chelsea due to the form of Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez.

He has become an ever-present under David Moyes however and is arguably the Premier League’s form player, with three goals and two assists in the last five games, including a sensational winner against Manchester United.

And a great run of results have lifted Everton to seventh in the table, just two points behind Chelsea who are win-less in four.

‘For us, November was fantastic. December, we didn’t start in the way we would like,’ Maresca added.

‘It’s eight days ago we played Leeds. So it’s just three games in a row in one week that we didn’t get results that we expect. But now focus on the next one.

‘All the games, they’re important. I think Bournemouth was important. The next one, we have Cardiff and then Newcastle. They are all important. So if we are able to beat Everton tomorrow, it’s much better for us. Otherwise, we continue to try and to see how we can do better.’