Liverpool FC Forum

by **wee_boi888** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:29 pm

im starting to getworried, me being an aussie i really hope Kewell gets back on his feet. I remember when all the hype was around him when he was transferred from Leeds and the great start he had - but even so, i still dont believe he lived up to expectations (ie at the begining of last season). I think he has never gained the form he did back at Leeds.

In saying that, i do believe he will regain the form and i hope all you other guys believe it to, but reading some posts, i dont feel its time to knock him down yet as some of you already have.

Anyway, i found an article thats interesting about Harry and his new DVD:

Meeting the new Harry
Les Murray

On the front cover of his DVD, titled Cool World, Harry Kewell is pictured in a pale yellow tee shirt and denim jeans. It's a clever piece of image making.

Though there is a solitary shot of Harry in a Liverpool strip on the back cover, there are no action shots, no photos of triumphant post-goal leaps in the air, no poses with celebrity team mates.

It is, one thinks, to make Harry appear eminently human, a perception that has been somewhat lacking in some of the markets where the DVD is targeted, notably Australia. The film, slick, inventive and entertaining, works like a charm to introduce Harry, the boy next door.

If you have been under the impression that Kewell is a big-headed recluse, with no care for anything except his career and his family, then this film might change your mind.

In it he appears as a drop-dead normal, suburban kid from western Sydney, with the same trappings as any son of yours or mine who may have grown up in Smithfield. He sports an infectious smile, a zest for the 'normal' life, talks lovingly of his kids (and his wife lovingly of him) and, with self-mocking exaggeration, confesses to being a bit of a rev-head and car collector. Quite a 'westie', only to the extent that the term describes a form of humility, transposed into a naturalised Scouser.

If you seek revelations and answers to the controversies of the Kewell career, this film is not where you will find it. It's a light flick that attempts to get up close and personal to HK but not much more. An assortment of team mates and coaches ramble freely about Harry's skills but that is where the football, as a theme of the documentary, begins and ends.

There is the mandatory home video footage of Harry as a pre-pubescent, complete with a snaking mullet, but, notably, the famous piece to camera where he professes to dreaming of playing for England is omitted. One can only surmise that its inclusion may not have been clever protocol in the Australian market.

Which, in turn, suggests that the DVD was, in part, meant to placate the hostile elements of the Australian audience, fashioned by events in his career to believe that Harry is less than loyal to his Aussie roots.

Certainly, Harry Kewell's many public appearances during his recent stay in Sydney appeared to have been geared to cleaning up that image. And he did well at it. His accessibility to the media, his willingness to street mingle, sign autographs and chit chat, were things right out of the ordinary for Harry who, until now, tended to confine his rare public appearances in Australia to dressing up in smart suits and agreeing to be chatted up by Ray Martin or Rove.

That PR work did wonders for the gate at the Sydney game against the Solomon Islands. The fact that Harry made himself so accessible surely in order to sell his DVDs was not lost on any of us. But, one might ask, why should we care if it meant a helping hand to the game in this country. Almost 20,000 turned up to a dead, meaningless game and why?

Because Harry was playing and because Harry had been in the public eye for a week before the fixture, generating interest and reminding us all that to see him play before a Sydney audience is a rare and opportune thing. It was splendid marketing, both for the game promoters and for Harry himself.

In the end Kewell's performance, to the extent that it should have been a reward for all who battled through the traffic to see him on that Tuesday night, was disappointing. Many got there late and never got to see him. He never emerged for the second half.

More worrying, for Kewellologists, was his display. The man is a touch of class on the field, even when he is off colour or has a bad game. We know that, and that was perfectly evident again in Sydney. But he hasn't been on colour for some time and he wasn't on colour that night.

What was missing was the spice, the salt in the Kewell game we have known from his best days, his arrogant turn on to his defender (the way he befuddled Rio Ferdinand at Upton Park), his explosive readiness to fly past the wannabe bruisers, his hunger to fire goals or conjure the telling move for others to score them.

Maybe it was the groin injury and his concern not to aggravate it. Maybe it was that mystery ailment, which denies him his ability to fly long hauls without lengthy recovery times. Maybe it was the lack of stakes in the game, the mediocrity of the opponent, the 5-1 win in Honiara dampening his willingness or need to take physical risks.

Whatever it was, Harry had a 45-minute stroll rather than the kind of wholesome performance to which Kewell fans, like me, have been accustomed. It did the job, he scored a goal, got a knock and went off, we won 6-0 and Harry flew off to Liverpool the next day. Who's complaining?

Complaining? No. It's just that we see Harry in the flesh so rarely that a bit more of a show in his home town, and his rarest of appearances in it, may have been a chance to bank the opportunity as one to tell the grandchildren. You know, Harry came to Sydney, tore them apart, and I was there.

Still, there will be other games (we hope) where the stakes and the pressure will be higher and maybe 'H' will rise to them, as he has always done in the few meaningful games he has played for us, like the ones against Iran or Uruguay.

In the meantime we Kewell fans will be watching his club performances closely to see if the game against the Solomons was but a convenient aberration and not the new norm. For such a performance as the one the other night will not do against a Uruguay, a Chile or a Colombia. And neither will it do for Liverpool in the Premier League.

His brief, accommodating sojourn in Sydney, and the DVD, did well to rehabilitate the Kewell image as one of an average Aussie western suburbs urchin whose dreams are on par with ours. For Australia to get to the World Cup, to do well in it, and for our best player to be part of it.

But in the end, he played 45 minutes out of an available 180, albeit because of injury, and in those 45 he barely excited the sensors of expectation.

One left the ground after the Solomons game a wee deflated and seriously concerned about the future for 'our Harry'. It has been some time now since we last saw Kewell in the kind of form that had us bragging that he was one of the world’s best players. And I am speaking of the Leeds days.

We don't know what the problem is, if there is a problem, for a thick coat of secrecy always surrounds Kewell's physical condition and mental state. As Australians we can only lean back and hope that it's a passing phase and the Kewell of old will soon return.

http://www3.sbs.com.au/opinions/index.php3?id=50906

by **stmichael** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:33 pm

wee_boi888 wrote:In saying that, i do believe he will regain the form and i hope all you other guys believe it to, but reading some posts, i dont feel its time to knock him down yet as some of you already have.

the reason most of us are knocking him is simple. he played the second half of last season with a niggling ankle problem which affected his form quite badly. during the close season, specialists told him that if he didn't have surgery and get his ankle sorted for good, he may have to retire in the near future.

did he have that operation?

no he swanned off on holiday and was doing a load of promotional work. it's hardly surprising that his ankle injury keeps coming back every five minutes is it. :angry:

by **kazza** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:12 pm

I think he hurt his ankle at Leeds, and was never the same since.

by **Paul C** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:27 pm

I don't have any time for Harry Kewell, he should stop complaining about his injuries and get an op on it, it's not like he's in the form of his life at the moment cos he's done nothing since coming to Anfield, ok he scored a few goals last season but thats all.

by **Woollyback** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:10 pm

A mate of mine was driving home from the Newcastle game at the end of last season and saw Kewell speed past him in his car about 20-30mins after the final whistle. We'd just played our last game of the season in front of a full-house at Anfield and had assured qualification for the CL (ok, that was confirmed the previous game) but surely you'd have thought the players would be hanging out at Anfield for a while, a bit of team camaraderie? Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I reckon the players probably were, apat from bone-idle Kewell who obviously had a more pressing arrangement with his f*ckin agent or something.

He needs to pull his socks up a bit and put LFC before Harry Kewell for a change

Liverpool FC Forum

Kewell

Who is online