“A real creative asset” – Leicester City replacement for Dewsbury-Hall could be at Luton Town or in MLS

FLW writers have had their say on Leicester City potentially sourcing a replacement for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Leicester City have more clarity after their promotion back to the Premier League in the last week, but Sky Sports’ Rob Dorsett has warned of “choppy waters” lying ahead for the club.

That includes a chance that they sell their star man, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, to help balance the club’s finances before the financial year ends in June.

No matter what happens this summer, Dewsbury-Hall will be a Premier League player. The midfielder helped his team to win promotion, and the league, at the first time of asking, after being relegated from the top flight in the 2022/23 campaign.

Questions also remain over the futures of other players, but mostly with Dewsbury-Hall; not because of a lack of ability, clearly, but because of the mounting interest in him, and the club’s financial position.

He can command a serious fee from other Premier League sides, and help to balance the books more than any other player in their squad after an outstanding season of 12 goals and 15 assists in all competitions for the midfielder.

The Foxes are in a fairly strong negotiating position, with his contract not expiring until the summer of 2027. They should be able to hold out for a decent fee because of this, but their hand is also weakened in negotiations due to other clubs knowing that the Foxes are in danger of breaching financial rules again if they fail to raise funds before the end of June.

A replacement for him would therefore be needed, and the Foxes will have to be savvy within the market in order to source a replacement for their Player of the Season, given the funds raised will not be put towards any transfer kitty.

Leicester City may need to find a Dewsbury-Hall replacement this summer

Recent reports have stated that Callum O’Hare has told Coventry City that he will be leaving at the end of the season upon the expiry of his contract, according to Football Insider.

Here, we ask our FLW writers their verdict on whether this would be a good enough replacement for Dewsbury-Hall, or if they should look at other options across Europe this summer.

Adam Elliott

On his day, O’Hare is one of the most talented and exciting players the Championship has to offer in an attacking sense.

However, it is also of concern to Coventry that his form and fitness have been solid at the back end of the campaign, given his contract situation is not ideal for the club.

Other sides are bound to be interested in the playmaker when factoring his form into that as well, which is why Leicester will almost certainly be weighing up a move, in order to save some cash.

Given the situation with Dewsbury-Hall and the club’s finances, it would be somewhat sensible, despite the quality difference between O’Hare and Dewsbury-Hall being fairly substantial.

They both operate in a similar way, as line-breaking players who can be utilised as an attacking-midfielder or box-to-box player in a three-man midfield, and whilst O’Hare is highly capable at second tier level, it is not abundantly clear if he is ready to fill Dewsbury-Hall’s shoes as a regular starter in the top-flight.

Driving the ball into spaces and playing between the lines is where O’Hare is at his best, irrespective of which league he’s in or the team he plays for, and Leicester are likely to be playing in transition more, where he can thrive.

However, his eye for a pass and the decisiveness of his final action is nowhere near that of Dewsbury-Hall, which is where Leicester would see a big output drop off.

All that being said, O’Hare will likely get a Premier League move, but perhaps to be more of an impact player from the bench, as opposed to a consistent starter. One player who could be available as well is Ross Barkley, with the length of his Luton Town contract unclear, but if the Hatters go down he will want to still be playing at the highest level possible.

The ex-Everton and Chelsea man is somewhat injury-prone but has had a decent season of consistent enough availability that the risk is surely worth taking for Enzo Maresca.

Ben Wignall

Given Leicester and Coventry City are rivals, O’Hare may be looking elsewhere in terms of a top flight move – there’s clearly a lot of love between himself and the Sky Blues fanbase, and he won’t be short of offers from clubs around Europe.

Even though Dewsbury-Hall has insisted he doesn’t want to leave the King Power Stadium, that stance could change if a big enough club comes calling with the right kind of money, but it should also mean Leicester have a little bit of cash to spend following July 1.

One name they could look towards is Ryan Gauld, a Scottish attacking midfielder who was destined for big things earlier on in his career, but his move from Dundee United to Sporting CP didn’t really work out.

Gauld, now 28 years of age, is really impressing in the MLS for the Vancouver Whitecaps and is always notching goals and assists for the Canadian outfit, a real creative asset, and being a left-footer he is very similar to Dewsbury-Hall in an attacking sense.