Harry Kewell

Has this already been posted? Was a cracking player in his day...

Harry Kewell, The Wizard of Oz [Best Goals] - YouTube

 

I am kind of stunned that a lot of these things were not in place already. Not by Ange, but by what he inherited. You would think the most obvious thing is to make sure everyone is singing from the same proverbial songbook. At the same time, am not totally surprised either.

I remember this was something that Fergie was doing at Man U during his heyday - that every level of the club, from the reserves to the U/15's or whatever, mirrored and complimented what the first team were doing, in terms of tactical approach, so that any player that steps up a grade/level already knew what would be expected of them at that next level, within the system they were using.

That was 20-25 years ago I remember where this was discussed on a program. You would think, given the success that SAF had at Man U (and I am not a Man U fan but it made perfect sense to me at the time and if you're not learning from the best in the business which SAF was, then what the * are you doing?), that a lot of clubs and managers/prospective managers would've taken note of such an obvious policy.

Which further begs the question, what the * was the thinking that Lennon had in place (or at worst, inherited from Rodgers and he just never bothered to correct), if such obvious joined up thinking that Postecoglou is implementing here? It's hard to think that Rodgers was so negligent and the fact that Tierney, Johnston, Ralston et al were in the system and making the step up - or being sent out on loans to further their development at a first team level elsewhere.

Again, what I take from this was the joined up thinking that Ange is continuing to implement at all levels throughout the club, and really that is what management is all about. It's not just looking after the first team, but the entire club. Otherwise it's just being a glorified first team coach.

Yes, the primary focus is on the first team and it's success, but by looking after the conveyor belt you are looking after the future of the first team also.

Likewise, if you are wanting academy players being given a pathway to the first team, they get this by proving not just through ability but with fitness and acumen, knowing what is to be expected if they do get the call to be invited to train with the first team, and by extension, potentially playing, by demonstrating that they can actually do the job, not just hope that they can.

Having McManus being part of this is a great move. The guy literally came through the academy and not just graduated to the first team, but to then become a first team regular, and then the club captain under WGS - so he knows every step that is needed to make it.

Again, just beggars belief that this is even necessary, but it only re-enforces that Ange doesn't just drill the 'we never stop' ethos into the players, but that he himself lives it. If there is something that needs fixed, that here we are before the start of the season and he is implementing a vision for the entire club for the coming season, now that the first team are back on track, which was the obvious priority of last season.

 

Deffo some weird twang he's got..

 

It has settled a little. I remember him being interviewed when Oz qualified for the 2006 World Cup and he sounded like Del Boy out of Fools and Horses.

 

Every time he disagrees with Ange on the training pitch he'll be saying: "You 'avin a laugh, Ange?"

To which Ange will ask what the * he's on about, and Harry will reply: "Doo leave it out me ol mucker, inverted fullbacks are yesterday's news... farkin chip paper mate."

At which point Ange will realise he's no longer Australian and will therefore sack him.

 

There was new face on the coaching staff at Lennoxtown on Monday as the Celts started to return to pre-season training ahead of the coming campaign.

Ange Postecoglou was joined by fellow-Aussie on the training ground for first-time sessions with the players and he was delighted to introduce the new Bhoy to the players.

The manager told Celtic TV: “We’ve never worked together but he’s obviously one of Australia’s greatest ever footballers and a guy who’s worked really hard trying to get a coaching career going, and from afar, the reports I’ve had on him, he’ll bring some real good qualities in terms of his on-field coaching, his ability to mentor players.

“For me it was really important that when the players came back this year that they understood that nothing stands still.

‘There’s constant evolution, we want to be better every year, and seeing a couple of new faces in the staff is going to help that.'

“He'll bring an energy. I know he’s super-excited at being involved at this level and this football club. He’s got Champions League experience as a player – he’s won it, and he’s an attacking player as well which I think will help the group we’ve got, and the balance we’ve got in the coaching group.

“Along with Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea, I’ve got a really good exciting, young, vibrant coaching group that I know are going to put a lot of energy into both the first team and the B team this year.”

 

Loved hearing him efing and blinding on the touchline today, seems to have hit the road running. Real character for the coaching team, in what seems to be a quiet bunch, that'll benefit both the backroom staff and players alike.

 

Then Harry would try and do the bunk and pull a hammy

 

Interesting he mentioned O’Dea, I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. And when he does Celtic TV I think he’s brilliant with it, also heard on here that he’s a dinosaur from guys that can be spot on when it comes to the youths.

Find it interesting, don’t think Ange would call him out by name if he wasn’t good. He’d just give lip service of good staff and not point out guys if he never rated them I think.

 

Undercover agent?

Let him off, for now.

 

It's possible both views of O'Dea are right and wrong at the same time. It could be that left to his own devices he reverts to type, but when he has a plan and structure to work to he follows directions and does what is asked of him well.

I still wish we would appoint people in those roles with experience at accademies with a similar level to us, not just being an ex celtic player, so they know what they are doing when they come in and aren't wasting time learning on the job. That doesn't mean they won't be good at the job eventually, but it could waste the talent of players under their early coaching regime, depending on how long it takes them to learn from their mistakes.

 

He should be demoted to janitor or court jester pending an investigation on this … anyone who’s ever picked the huns isn’t of sound mind

 

https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...r/news-story/8d39de52dcd0094db84c46baa568976d

Australian football legend Harry Kewell has opened up on his surprise move to work as Celtic’s first-team manager under compatriot Ange Postecoglou in a revealing interview with Foxsports.com.au, in which he also discussed Socceroos star Aaron Mooy’s arrival at the Scottish giants and the Aussies’ prospects for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Kewell, a Leeds and Liverpool superstar who racked up nearly 60 caps for the Australian national team and is widely viewed as one of the most talented players Australia has ever produced, has been announced as a ‘Hero’ player in the upcoming release of FIFA 23 – the latest iteration of the mega-popular football video game series.

Kewell will follow in the footsteps of former Socceroos teammate Tim Cahill, whose legendary career was celebrated with his own ‘Hero’ card in FIFA 22’s Ultimate Team mode.



Speaking to Foxsports.com.au, Kewell said he was immensely honoured by the news.


I wasn’t expecting it, so it came as a huge surprise. And when the guys were speaking about bringing me out as a Hero, I jumped at the chance because it’s not all the time you get an opportunity like this – to not only represent the game that you love, but to represent it at a level where the (number of) players that play this game is huge. And now I get to be someone special in it,” he beamed.



Kewell admitted that he prefers to watch the game these days, after being on the end of far too many losing scorelines to his son Taylor.

“I played it a long time ago, not gonna lie! And I was actually not bad at it – I usually had that kind of pass and move, that Liverpool groove, feel to the game. I never really dribbled that much even though I was a dribbler,” he said.

“But no, I tend to watch nowadays, because there’s so many buttons. And the players, like when I used to play (they) were at a certain level, but now they’ve just blown away what we used to do in the game. And I sit and watch – my son’s pretty good at it. And every now and then I do play him, and he does beat me about six or seven nil. So now hopefully, I can play it again and use my Hero and then hopefully the tables will turn!”

Just don’t ask Harry to decide on his own Ultimate Team – or even the best XI of those he once played alongside. “That’s going to upset a lot of people,” he hit back with a laugh.


KEWELL’S CELTIC ARRIVAL – AND ANGE BEHIND THE SCENES

But back to real life, where Kewell has spent almost two months in Glasgow after receiving a surprise message from legendary Australian coach Ange Postecoglou at Celtic.

Kewell turned to coaching following his retirement in 2014, making history as the first Australian to coach a professional English men’s side. There have been highlights – a successful stint at Crawley Town – but results have been mixed in the dogfight that is England’s lower tiers.

Then, in June, came an Ange Postecoglou message out of the blue.

“That was a big surprise,” Kewell says. “I wasn’t expecting it. I was actually going in for another job at the time. And I thought the interview went really well, so I was waiting back for a call back from that. And let’s just say that happened on a Tuesday, I received the message from the manager (Ange) around about the Thursday or Friday. And within that message that he sent me was enough for me to forget about what I have been doing it and come and learn off one of the best. I thought it was too good of an opportunity to pass by.

“And since I’ve been up there, it’s been fantastic – I’ve learned so much from him already. And I just want to take all that information and build on that and hopefully become a better coach.”


So what is it that makes Postecoglou so special?

“I think one, it’s his attitude,” Kewell says. “You know, I’ve always liked to work with people that are good people first and foremost. And that’s what he is – he’s actually a good person.

“And then comes his work attitude, his relentlessness, he wants to be able to be the best all the time, which I love. He’s never satisfied. He wants to keep pushing, not only himself and not only his team, but he wants to push for that next level. And I love being part of that.

“And to be able to kind of sit back – I know it sounds funny – but sitting back and taking it all in and learning. I’m used to talking a lot and running a lot of things, but to be able to take a step back and watch someone else put on training sessions, put on meetings, be able to come up with different ideas, and you’re able to just throw your idea out there. And whether you can challenge him or not, that’s the key for me to be able to learn and, and push myself against the best.”

Postecoglou has forged a reputation for maintaining a cool distance from his players – not uncaring, but coolly professional in order to avoid any bias in his selections.

As he once told Open Goal: “Most people will tell you if we get on a plane they’d shuffle the boarding passes because no-one wants to sit next to me.

“I could sit on a plane, a long-haul for eight hours and not say a word to them and it totally uneases people – particularly players.

“I’ve done it many a time and they hated it. It’s the death seat for them so I don’t think any of the players will they say they got close to the gaffer. I would never sit down and have a cup of coffee with them.”

But Kewell says the custodian isn’t as cold as he’s sometimes made out to be.



Asked about Postecoglou’s personality behind the scenes, Kewell just laughed: “I don’t know how to really answer that one because he’s my boss! So I think he’s, well like I said at the start, he’s a great guy. You know, I’ve had talks with him about football and they’re at length, and then sometimes we just talk like two guys are chatting. That’s usually outside, and I’m not saying that we meet up, but if we’ve got 10 minutes before lunch or after lunch, we’ll just sit and we’ll just have a chat.



I mean, we had a great chat about the last time we went to Vegas! You know that was 15 years ago for him, and about five years ago for me, but we had gone to see the same show (Cirque du Soleil). So we’re just chatting normal stuff. He’s a warming character.”




Kewell says he “would love” to return to head coaching in the future: “It’s an amazing job … you’re testing yourself and your ideas against all the other good managers out there.”

For now, his complete focus is on Celtic, and what he can offer the players and the team – which, given his breadth of experience, should be plenty.

Like the Champions League: Kewell started but was injured in the first half of Liverpool’s iconic win over Milan in the 2005 final, while he also featured in Liverpool’s defeat in the final two years later.

“In my Champions League experience, I’ve had the very highest and I’ve also had the very lowest,” Kewell says. With their league title last season, Celtic qualified directly for the competition’s group stage this season, with their opponents to be revealed in two weeks.




AARON MOOY – AND THE SOCCEROOS’ WORLD CUP HOPES

A month after Kewell signed on the dotted line at the green half of Glasgow, another big-name Aussie also arrived: Socceroos midfielder Aaron Mooy.

“I didn’t play a role in that transfer,” an excited Kewell says. “But what I will say with Aaron is Celtic have bought a fantastic player, a top professional, he works extremely hard. And even over the last say, week, you can see his class just coming about now. And players are really seeing what Aaron Mooy is really about.




He looks in great shape. He looks strong, he looks powerful. His movement’s good. His touch is excellent, he’s training very well. So hopefully he can start pushing the team to make them push further.”

Mooy has been used off the bench in Celtic’s first three league games of the season, starting with a handful of minutes in the first two before enjoying nearly half an hour on the park in last weekend’s 5-0 win over Kilmarnock.




With the World Cup less than 100 days away, Kewell says Mooy looms as a crucial member of the Socceroos squad.

“He’s an important player for Australia. You’ve got to remember, he has played at the highest level and his experience in past competitions is going to be priceless for the Australian team. So, you know, it’s important that he does well for Celtic, because if he does well for Celtic then he’s going to be right for the Australian team.

“If he’s not doing right for Celtic – again, it goes for every single player, if you’re not playing well for your club, you’re not going to be playing well for Australia. You can’t think okay, well, I’ve got three or four weeks to warm up for the World Cup. No, you have to be playing well now to be ready for the national team, so when you’re going there, you can just go straight away.”

Besides Mooy, I asked Kewell which Socceroos he believes can have the biggest impact in Qatar.

Kewell replied: “You know what? I’m looking forward honestly – and I know you may turn around and say it’s an easy way to come out of this question, but I never really like to break it down to individuals.

“I think the most successful teams are a team, and I think when we talk about certain individuals or how they can play, I think it’s kind of a disrespectful thing because a team, you know, an individual can win a game, right? But a team will win competitions, and you have to have your team ready.

“And it’s important that whether you’re starting or whether you’re on the bench or whether you just miss out, you’re still part of that group and I think it’s very important that the Australian team do stick together – because it is going to be tough, there’s some amazing teams out there, there’s some amazing players out there. But if we sit there and we work together as a team, we can maybe do something special.”

 

Our finishing since he’s arrive has went up a level

 

Good interview with Harry. I enjoyed that. You can see he is already adding a new dimension and impetus
to the team and club already. Fitting in nicely too with Ange.

 

Are we growing out of Scottish football? Its who we are bringing in now, from the top to the bottom we seem to be taken another step, its not any disrespect to the rest of Scottish football, its the money that is not being injected to Scottish football , Sky is ruling football ,, as many people have said Sky just gives Scotland the crumbs that fell off the banquet table in London