It all went downhill in the first eighteen months for Harry.
Sure, his initial interviews when playing for Liverpool was that he’d signed for a team who were going places, the manager had convinced him to sign for Liverpool over Manchester United and the top continental sides. He scored approximately a dozen goals in his first season but was still not the Harry Kewell we had seen blaze up the left side of midfield for Leeds. A waste of money by Gerard Houllier?
You can look at the lad off the pitch, the bad blood from the start with the distribution of funds from his transfer which meant he and his agent received the biggest amount of the cash, the libel case with Gary Lineker, all this and the two poor showings in the Carling Cup final and the Holy Grail itself, the European Cup final. He was branded a liability, a passenger, a player who is in it for himself and the money. The lad reportedly earns £65,000 a week for Liverpool and he hadn’t pulled his finger out to earn a penny of it according to some fans. Married to an actress, was he more arsed about his celebrity than playing for his boyhood team Liverpool? Didn't exactly endear himself to us did he?
And look at his stupid hair!!!!
Roll on the 2005/06 season. Kewell is still injured for the first quarter of the season. Everyone had forgotten him anyway and was looking to get him off the books and sign a replacement. Damien Duff anyone? You don’t miss what you’ve never had anyway.
Recall last season when he was injured along with the likes of Gerrard, Alonso, Cisse, in fact, most of the squad were injured at some point or another last season. Everybody seemed to have forgotten about Kewell; Kewell who had no bottle; Kewell who had no arse. I admit, I said it about him myself and I never try to put the boot in if it isn’t necessary. I do feel there are a couple of passengers in the squad at the moment who I won’t mention here but last season, I thought Kewell was one of them. He’d lost the desire what made him a feared player for Leeds. And what an exceptional player he was for Leeds.
Who had we signed, his weaker evil twin brother?
Kewell has played in 25 games for Liverpool this season including tonight against Arsenal and was eased in slowly. He was played for one half; then given an hour, then seventy minutes. Then he was given a few games under his belt and has seemed to regain his touch (which was probably there all along after all). I am going to go out on a limb and say he has been performing out of his skin since he has been back and has proved some doubters wrong. At least this doubter anyway.
I’ve been to Anfield a few times this season now and noticed that the lad has his confidence back. I can’t belive it’s the same player. I have watched his games last season where he may have been rushed back prematurely and you can clearly see that he lacked the fitness, pace and most importantly confidence to play his natural game and blitz down that left wing. He was carrying a lot of excess weight as well.
We have been seeing more and more the old 'Leeds United' Harry Kewell the last dozen games. Not quite there yet but the signs are more than encouraging.
Look at the game against Sao Paolo which we lost, the consolation being we absolutely battered the so called World Champions. He gave their right-back Cicinho a torrid time, apparently the natural successor to the legendary Cafu.
Look at his first touch. Last year he didn’t have one, taking a second or two to decide what to do with the ball once he had it under control. It would probably have invariably gone out for a throw in while he was making the decision and the full back had challenged him. Opposition throw in, Kewell, head down, disillusioned, crowd on his back.
Now, he knows what he’s going to do before he even knows he’s going to get the ball. You can see the way he positions his body when he has the ball, he knows what to do with it. It’s all one touch football now, with either foot. If not that, he’s too busy leaving the defenders in his dust, not only that, he can take the time to look up, see two men confronting him and think “Fuck it, I’ll have you’s both”. He’s hitting that touchline like he owns it and leaving players in his wake, throwing the crosses in and looking the player we all thought we had signed back in 2003.
I said at the end of last season, even after we had won the Champions League that I was beginning to run out of patience with Kewell, but I wanted to see him fully fit before I judged him. This was after all the player who had limped out of two cup finals. I can see now, the way the man is playing, he MUST have been injured and I was wrong about him for thinking he didn’t have the balls.
I said this statement in the thread I started in the Advanced Debate forum titled “What The Champions League final Means To Me”.
Harry, if you read these online forums, it’s good to have you back.
Keep it up lad.
by 