Will Liverpool’s capture of Australian international midfielder Harry Kewell be enough to carry the team that dominated English football in the 1980s to their first league title in 13 years?
That is the question at Anfield, where former Leeds star Kewell will link up with Michael Owen in an attacking partnership that should give Manchester United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy or Arsenal’s Thierry Henry a run for their money.
Manager Gerard Houllier is convinced last season’s Christmas-time slump, which destroyed any chance of the title, was a blip from which his players have learned.
But the economics of the English Premiership dictate that if Liverpool fail once again to qualify for the lucrative European Champions League, Houllier could be out of a job.
The Frenchman is pinning much on Kewell, who at £5-million looks the bargain of the close season, and Houllier has even compared him with France and Real Madrid superstar Zinedine Zidane.
”I am not going to put too much pressure on him, but I think he is 24, and he is leaving Leeds at the same age Zinedine Zidane left Bordeaux for Juventus.
”At the time, nobody knew so much about Zidane and I think Harry has some similar qualities.
”He is not at that level yet, but Zidane is 30 and I think he can be that sort of player, a player who can be a supporting midfield player to the strikers or sometimes even off the striker,” Houllier said.
Kewell became a Liverpool fan as a boy by following their matches on TV in Australia and knows that expectations will be enormous after his controversial move from Leeds.
”I know I’ve got to do a job out there and that is what I am here to do, but Liverpool’s history means there is a lot to live up to,” he said.
But the striker underlined he would not be happy settling for the Uefa Cup football that Liverpool must play this season after the four-time European champions missed out on the continent’s top competition — the Australian having reached the last four with Leeds.
”There are so many things I want to win and I haven’t won any of them so far. I’ve achieved nothing, I’ve won nothing, and that’s why I am here.”
Add in the in-form Emile Heskey and Czech striker Milan Baros and fireworks up front seem guaranteed, but Liverpool’s season could hinge on the fitness of central defensive partnership Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz.
Reports that Houllier was seeking to bolster the rearguard by attempting to sign Valencia’s rugged Argentinian centre-back Roberto Ayala have been denied by the club, with the manager insisting Croatian midfielder Igor Biscan is being groomed as a central defender instead.
Irish international Steve Finnan will push Jamie Carragher for selection in defence after joining from Fulham, but the suspicion remains that another defender could be on the Anfield shopping list.
In a bitter twist of irony Liverpool start their Premiership campaign by facing Chelsea, the team that defeated them on the final day of last season, condemning them to fifth place and grabbing the last Champions League place.
That defeat was worth an estimated £15-million, a sum that seems peanuts to the London club since their takeover by Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich, prompting a £90-million spending spree on new players for the London club.
Liverpool cannot compete with that, but Houllier has seen enough to give him a taste for the new campaign.
”After last season I could not wait for the new one. It has made me hungrier,” he said. — Sapa-AFP