Former Socceroo star Harry Kewell has been brutally sacked from his job coaching a struggling fifth-tier English football club.
Ex-Leeds and Liverpool player Harry Kewell has been sacked from his position as head coach at struggling Barnet, the English non-league side said on Monday.
The former Australia international, 42, who has previously managed a number of other clubs in the lower leagues, was appointed at Barnet in June.
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The club is second from bottom of the National League — the fifth tier of the English game — after no wins in their first seven league matches.
“Barnet FC have parted company with head coach Harry Kewell and assistant coach Paul Butler with immediate effect,” the club said in a statement.
The club’s head of football Dean Brennan said: “It was clear how much Harry Kewell wanted to have a positive impact, but ultimately the results and the poor start to the season have dictated our decision.”
“The plan for this season was for Barnet FC to be challenging in the top half of the table and that is still very much our aim.”
Kewell made his name as an attacking player at Leeds in the late 1990s before signing for Liverpool. He won 58 caps for Australia, scoring 17 goals.
He had previously coached in England’s League Two with Crawley Town, Notts County and Oldham Athletic.
It was always going to be difficult for Kewell to keep his job with Barnet languishing in second last on the ladder.
However just last week, the ex-Socceroo star was optimistic his side could turn their poor early-season form around.
“It’s fantastic, I have to say. There are challenges which you get, and I’m sure when you go to the highest level, there’s different kinds of challenges,” Kewell told Optus Sport.
“But it’s a new team and this is what a lot of people don’t understand. At the lower levels, it’s very rare you get to have a squad that’s been together for at least a season because everyone is chopping and changing all the time.
“So when you do see a team that actually sticks with 80 per cent of their team, they usually start to have a little bit of success, so it does take time.
“It is challenging. I don’t think there’s a big difference between the National League, League Two and League One – I really don’t.
“So it is tough, it’s fun and yes, we haven’t got off to the greatest of starts, but we’re down with about nine injuries at the moment so it’s a little bit unlucky. But we’re slowly getting them back and hopefully we can start to progress that little bit more.”
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