Transfer news: Everton agree fee with Chelsea for Dewsbury-Hall plus Sesko latest – BBC

Transfer news, done deals, analysis and gossip
Everton agree to sign Chelsea midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in a deal worth around £28m
The 26-year-old will now finalise personal terms and undergo a medical despite late interest from Fulham
Gossip latest: Newcastle make improved bid for RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko?
Liverpool win both games in a double-header against Athletic Bilbao as youngster Rio Ngumoha shines
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Dewsbury-Hall is a great signing for Everton, could have the impact that Maddison had at Spurs when he joined. With game time and more experience he could also put himself in a position to fight for an England place for the World Cup next year
Charlie, Manchester
Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter
Everton's bid for Southampton winger Tyler Dibling is perhaps part of an admission that it will be difficult to sign Malick Fofana from Lyon.
Fofana has not completely ruled out a move to the Toffees but after reports that talks were at an "advanced" stage, there is a clear reluctance from the Belgium international to move to Merseyside.
European powerhouses like Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool have expressed an interest, which has led to the 20-year-old to sit tight and stall on any move to Everton.
Joe Bradshaw
BBC Sport
It seems a touch ironic that in seeking to address their goalscoring difficulties, Everton have targeted an attacker from one of the only two teams to score fewer than them last season.
Last season, Dibling scored two goals from nine shots on target, notching every 937 minutes. That is a long way behind Beto's 191 minutes per goal or even the 537 minutes managed by the much-maligned Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Dibling caught the eye with his close control last season, but after a hot start he faded in the malaise of Southampton's season, and a dribbling success rate of 47% was middle of the road for the two squads.
For instance, Illiman Ndiaye offered 48.5% and Dwight McNeil 53%. Dibling's shooting accuracy was below his potential future team-mates too.
However, while the numbers do not suggest a huge improvement, Everton would be buying great potential, and filling a significant hole in their squad.
The touch map below shows Dibling clung mainly to the right side of Southampton's attack, tending to cut in on his left foot to make things happen. That was the position taken up by Jack Harrison in his 34 appearances last year and he has now returned to Leeds.
Adam Blackmore
BBC Radio Solent sports editor
Tyler Dibling gets rave reviews when I speak to senior players and ex-players about him. They see a young English talent who has great potential and huge natural ability.
He has great balance and poise, good power and strength for his age, the ball sticks to his feet when he is dribbling, and he can win free-kicks by sucking defenders in, only to shift the ball away from them in a Jack Grealish style.
Last season was a steep learning curve for Dibling and a tough campaign for a teenager to deal with.
He was brilliant at times, but as the season faded for Southampton it also faded for Dibling as niggling injuries impacted him, as well as the vagaries of trying to play at the highest level week in, week out.
He is a quiet, thoughtful teenager who does not look for the centre stage, but his talent is good enough to demand it in the future if he keeps growing as he has.
We'll see what Southampton accept – if Dibling wants to go to Everton.
He went to Chelsea as a youngster but didn't like it and came back to Southampton. It says a lot about what is important to him.
As an Everton fan, it’s good we are bolstering numbers but none of the signings apart from Alcaraz actually improve the starting 11. We need more quality. Nelson Semedo on a free and Mainoo on loan will do (Mainoo won’t be first choice at Man Utd).
Graham
Dewsbury-Hall feels like a very David Moyes signing. He's not a world beater but Moyes will turn him into a very solid pro who give them seven or eight out of 10 every game. Could see him being a mainstay for a decade if he buys into the project and feels at home.
Rob
Simon Stone
BBC Sport chief football news reporter in Atlanta
By his own admission, David Moyes is not immediately drawn to Snoop Dogg's music.
But there is a sentence in one of the best-selling and influential rap artists of all time's most famous songs that probably sums up Moyes' mood at the moment. Halfway through Drop It Like It's Hot, Snoop declares "I can't fake it".
And having finished with one point, and bottom of the Premier League Summer Series table, after losing their previous three pre-season matches, the results are starting to be a concern – Moyes can't fake it.
Lack of movement on the transfer front has been a running commentary in Moyes' engagement with the media throughout Everton's 12-day trip.
Southampton's exciting talent Tyler Dibling is one of those Moyes expects Everton to land this week. Dibling clearly has Premier League experience and his arrival would be a positive, yet, at 19, he is also one for the future.
But it wasn't supposed to be like this.
Getting Farhad Moshiri out was felt by many supporters to have come at the perfect time, with ideas of new investment to coincide with the long-anticipated move to the magnificent Hill Dickinson Stadium. Yet Moyes wonders whether the vision has got in the way of reality.
"There could be teething problems at the start," he said. "Whether it be the stadium, whether it be with new owners, whether it be all sorts of things coming in.
"All Evertonians are looking to the future now. They don't want to look back on the past. We want to believe that something better is ahead of us.
"I think it will be better. My job is to give them a team to enjoy coming to watch. I thought we might have been a bit further down the line by now, but we're not."
It's all go at Everton then, with David Moyes aiming to reinforce his squad ahead of their debut campaign at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock.
Another player they are aiming to sign is Southampton winger Tyler Dibling – but unlike Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, that move is proving rather tricky to get over the line.
Southampton rejected a £27m bid for Dibling from Everton last week. So why are the Toffees so keenly pursuing a player who only scored two league goals last season…
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Everton
According to Transfermarkt, Everton have five central midfielders in their current senior squad.
This includes recognised Premier League regulars like James Garner and Idrissa Gueye, as well as Carlos Alcaraz whose loan from Flamengo was made permanent this summer.
However it also includes Tim Iroegbunam, who only made one Premier League start after the start of September last season. There is also 18-year-old Harrison Armstrong, who was on loan at Derby last season.
There is certainly room for reinforcement, and that's where Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fits the bill.
Age: 26
Position: Central midfield
Honours: Leicester City – 2021-22 Community Shield, 2023-24 Championship. Chelsea – 2024-25 Uefa Conference League, 2025 Club World Cup.
Premier League appearances: 72
PL goals: 3
PL assists: 5
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Chelsea seem to be engaging in a churn based transfer strategy rather than football based.
Rich, Tweedmouth
Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter
The sale of Kiernan 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 for the Champions League by September.
Chelsea are also still looking to strengthen their midfield options for next season, with talks ongoing for RB Leipzig's Netherlands international Xavi Simons.
Tom McCoy
BBC Sport journalist
Chelsea are reportedly ready to sell Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Everton and have accepted an offer from Burnley for fellow midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu.
The Blues have spent approximately £240m on new players this summer but have already recouped over half of that total by moving on eight unwanted players.
Selling the likes of Noni Madueke, Joao Felix and Djordje Petrovic has brought approximately £129m into the club, more than any other Premier League side.
Should Dewsbury-Hall and Ugochukwu also depart, that figure could rise by a further £50m.
Tom Mallows
BBC Sport
David Moyes has been vocal about his need for fresh faces this summer and the addition of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall would add much needed depth and quality to Everton's midfield.
It will be Dewsbury-Hall's returns during Leicester's 2023-24 promotion season that will be of particular interest to Moyes as he seeks 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 division and that tally has only been bettered three times in the last 10 Championship seasons.
Chelsea
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall found it difficult to adapt to life at Chelsea despite working with Maresca again.
Having starred in Leicester's Championship-winning campaign, he was hopeful of playing in the Premier League with his boyhood club. So much so that he rejected a move to Brighton to stay with the Foxes.
However, Chelsea's move in June 2024 was too big to turn down, especially as Leicester were pushing for the £30m sale – which also involved a swap with teenage midfielder Michael Golding going in the other direction – amid pressure to meet the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability requirements.
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.
He started only twice in the Premier League but made an impact in their Conference League run, where he scored four times and came off the bench to set up Jadon Sancho's goal in the 4-1 triumph over Real Betis in May's final.
Dewsbury-Hall was used mainly as a substitute in the Club World Cup, but scored his fifth goal for the club in a 4-1 victory over Benfica and appeared 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.
Everton
The signing of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall may go some way towards sating Everton manager David Moyes, who appeared quite downbeat about their summer transfer activity during a media conference last week.
In manager Moyes' final press conference at the Premier League Summer Series, he said: "I think there'll be deals next week. I think we're getting much closer, but I felt that four or five weeks ago as well.
"Obviously, we're getting near the tickly bits and we've got to get some things done."
Perhaps the arrival of a new midfielder will tickle Moyes' fancy.
Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter
Everton have agreed to sign Chelsea midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in a deal worth around £28m.
The fee for the 26-year-old is an initial £24m with a further £3-4m due in add-ons, and he will now finalise personal terms and undergo a medical despite late interest from Fulham.
Dewsbury-Hall had initially been reluctant to leave Stamford Bridge after a season playing in a supporting role as the side won the Fifa Club World Cup and Uefa Conference League, as well as qualifying for the Champions League.
However, the Blues were open to letting the midfielder go as they look to recoup the vast majority of the £30m it took to prise him from Leicester City in 2024, where he rejoined Enzo Maresca who also left the Foxes to manage Chelsea.
Let's start with a deal agreed yesterday afternoon, with Everton settling a £28m fee with Chelsea for midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Here's all you need to know about this transfer…
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