No new deal for Harry Kewell at Liverpool FC
May 7 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post
RAFAEL BENITEZ has called time on Harry Kewell’s disappointing Liverpool career.
The Australian will not be offered a new deal at Anfield when his current contract expires at the end of the season.
Such an outcome has been inevitable with Kewell having not figured for Liverpool since the FA Cup defeat to Barnsley in February.
The 29-year-old was signed in a blaze of publicity by then Anfield manager Gerard Houllier for ￡5million from Leeds United in July 2003.
Kewell scored 11 goals in his first season but, since Benitez assumed charge in 2004, has been dogged by a catalogue of series injuries ranging from serious groin, knee, thigh and ankle problems to septic arthritis in his foot.
Nevertheless, Benitez has been a consistent admirer of the Australian and turned to Kewell for all four of the major finals of his tenure.
Typically, though, Kewell limped off injured in the Carling Cup final in 2005, the Champions League final later that season and the FA Cup final the following year before emerging from the bench in the 2007 Champions League final despite having previously played only 46 minutes that season.
The Australian, who is unlikely to be given the chance of a swansong at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, has made 138 appearances and scored 16 goals in his five years at Anfield.
And when wages and his transfer fee are taken into consideration, Kewell has cost Liverpool an estimated ￡157,000 per game.
Kewell has been determined to stay at Anfield but is thought to have already lined up a possible move elsewhere, with Juventus among a clutch of potential suitors.
Meanwhile, Benitez faces a selection headache in midfield at the start of next season after Lucas Leiva confirmed his intention to play at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
The 21-year-old, who has impressed during his first season at Anfield, is expected to be called up by the Brazil team for the Beijing Games.
Javier Mascherano has already stated he wants to represent Argentina at the Olympics, in which the football tournament take places between August 6 and 23. And those possible interna-tional commitments would disrupt Benitez’s pre-season planning and leave Liverpool short of central midfield cover for at least the first two Barclays Premier League games and both legs of the Champions League qualifier.
“Hopefully I will be picked,” said Lucas. “That would mean I would start the pre-season here with Liverpool and then later on I would go to the Olympics. I need to wait for the squad to be picked but hopefully I will go.
“I know that would mean me missing some games for Liverpool, and that is not good. But for Brazil the Olympics is like the World Cup because Brazil has never won the gold medal.
“I need to think about the Olympics and I will speak with Rafa about this.”
Young full-back Emiliano Insua could also be called into the Argentina squad.
Liverpool’s reserves take on Aston Villa at Anfield tonight in the Barclays Premier Reserve League play-off final. Kick-off is 7.45pm, with a penalty shoot-out deciding the winner if the game is level after 90 minutes.
