It was in 2016 when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was handed a list telling Leicester City's scholars whose boots they had been assigned to clean out of the first-team squad for the upcoming season, as is tradition in academy football. 

He scanned and scanned until finally, he found his name next to that of the senior for whom he would be doing the scrubbing: N'Golo Kante.

'The year Leicester won the Premier League, I was his boot boy,' Dewsbury-Hall says with a smile, Chelsea's £30million summer signing having made sure they were spotless as he was petrified of being blamed if Kante's performances suddenly dipped.

They never did, so we hope Kante tipped well, at least? 'He did actually! I don't think he understood the concept of it before, but a few of the lads in the first team told him it was good manners to tip at Christmas. He might have gone to the cashpoint that night and brought it in the next day! He was quite generous so I thank whoever told him that! I did a good job, though.'

Dewsbury-Hall's days of cleaning Kante's boots are long gone. He is now bidding to show why he is fit to lace them after following in his footsteps from Leicester to Chelsea on a five-year contract.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall believes Chelsea can become a 'serious force' under Enzo Maresca

'I saw a tweet I posted when he signed,' he adds on the topic of Kante in his first newspaper interview since making his move. 'I'd said, "Now he's gone there, they are going to win the league", and that was the year Chelsea won the league. I was one of his biggest fans. To have any similarity to his journey at Chelsea would be a major success.'

Spend half hour in the company of the 25-year-old Englishman and you find yourself sincerely hoping he succeeds as one of the most polite and personable footballers you could wish to meet.

We are sitting down at the Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley in East Palo Alto. Laughter from outside the room occasionally interrupts the conversation as Reece James and Co enjoy themselves in the games area set up for Chelsea's players where they can play cards, darts, ping pong, FIFA on the PlayStation – whatever passes the time in between sessions.

Dewsbury-Hall is having less downtime than others, having stayed behind in training at the Stanford Campus to perform extra running drills in the 33-degree heat while everyone else was showering. To play the way that Enzo Maresca insists he must, he needs to be fully fit.

Dewsbury-Hall is in an odd position at Chelsea. He is brand new and yet knows the head coach better than anyone after winning the Championship under the 44-year-old Italian last season.

Maresca has even been using Leicester clips in tactical video sessions, sometimes showing Dewsbury-Hall following his instructions to the letter. Inevitably, it has led to the midfielder having the mickey taken out of him by his new team-mates for being the teacher's pet.

All in good humour, of course, and Dewsbury-Hall says Chelsea's star-studded squad are already buying into Maresca's ideas. 'I felt a bit stupid,' he says of his first dealings with the boss after his arrival at Leicester. 'I thought I knew a lot about football but he was teaching me things on a daily basis that I didn't know before. Within a week we were sold, all the players.

'I am getting the same feedback here with the lads. They've bought into it from minute one. You need everyone to buy in because if they do, you can really achieve something. I'm hoping that continues because if it does, we can be a serious force.'

What were those daily teachings he was taught by Maresca? 'When a player gets the ball, he knows exactly where his team-mates are,' he explains. 'You don't even need to look. You know the plan.

'It was going from understanding not so much to understanding everything. You could see that for Leicester last season. Flowing football. It was a joy to watch. This season it will go up a level because Chelsea are a top, top, top club. I genuinely think in a short space of time we can be pushing for minimum top four, but more than that because I can see the foundations are set.

'He has got an aura. You listen to what he is saying. He can be very strict. Then he's got a gentle, human side to him where you can go and talk to him as a person. He was a player for 20 years so he knows what it is like.

'He has come in exactly like he was at Leicester: confident. He's probably more confident here than when he was at Leicester. I don't know if that's because he's had a year under his belt and we did really well at Leicester winning the Championship. He just feels really confident and knows exactly what he wants and needs. He has something about him where you respect him.'

Dewsbury-Hall loved Leicester and still does, having spent his life there. But he could not turn down Chelsea as a career move, which he hopes his former supporters will understand when he returns to the King Power Stadium in November.

'If I score against them I won't celebrate,' he pledges. 'I wish them the best of luck for this season. I wanted to test myself at the next level. This felt like the right time and I wouldn't have left Leicester for a sideways move – it had to be a top move.

'I always knew Chelsea were admirers. When Enzo left Leicester, we were on fantastic terms. I wished him the best of luck and he did the same to me. I never in my head thought, "He's going to take me when he goes to a big club". I don't think I can be that arrogant.

'But when it came about, I was very happy, because it meant I could work under him again and continue to evolve. It was perfect for me.'

The added bonus of playing for Chelsea is it should place him in the England picture – so long as the performances follow – and Dewsbury-Hall admits he wants to earn that call-up within the next 12 months. 

'One hundred per cent,' he says. 'I have always dreamt of playing for England. I have my aims for Chelsea, of course – winning trophies and playing well – but hopefully side by side with that, if it can get me in contention, it would be a dream.

'Cole Palmer is the perfect example. He is absolutely flying and went on to make a great impact at the Euros. To do something similar, to follow in those footsteps, would be ideal.

'I'm a completely different player now coming back into the Premier League than when I was playing in it before. I've evolved, as a player and as a person. I've had the experiences of winning, of dominating games, and understanding football on a different level to what I did before. 

'If I made those leaps and bounds in the first year then I feel excited to see what can happen in the years to come. In football, you can't stagnate, you can't stop learning.'

Dewsbury-Hall finishes with a word of warning for the sceptics who say Maresca is out of his depth at Chelsea and that is: prepare to be surprised by the Premier League's newest head coach.

'Definitely,' he says. 'One hundred per cent. Look, I don't want to be banging on saying, "We're going to be doing this or that". He is unknown for a lot of people, but I can go off working with him and say my opinions and I think he is top, top level. I do think he will surprise a lot of people in the way we play and the way we do things.'