Harry Kewell can help take Jota and Liel Abada to another level. He can also ensure that Celtic go into the new season and the Champions League with all guns blazing.
Those are the views of Dundee United defender Mark Connolly, who worked under the Hoops’ new first-team coach when he was manager of Crawley Town. The champions headed out on Monday to begin their pre-season training camp, first in Austria then Czech Republic.
Ange Postecoglou moved to add Newell to his backroom staff over the summer. Connolly knows it is a shrewd appointment that will give Celtic ’s attacking play another dimension and especially their creative and wide players, like new signing £6.5 million signing Jota, Abada and James Forrest.
Former Benfica star Jota got 13 goals and 14 assists for the Hoops last season, while Israeli Abada netted 15 times and created 13 others. Connolly stated: “(Kewell) has played at the highest level. He has been one of the best wingers in the English Premier League of his era, been in a Champions League final and is one of the best ever Australian footballers.
“I can see Harry really helping Celtic’s attacking players and I believe there will be a big improvement, even from last season when they won the title. Jota has just signed a four year deal last week. For a player like that to work with Harry everyday you will see a different player.
“Ange Postecoglou has already made big changes and taken Celtic forward. The introduction of Harry will keep that going. I think you will see a difference in the likes of Jota and Liel Abada and James Forrest. It might even just be subtle things but they will help players who are already at the top level.”
Postecoglou has made his name with his total football approach and Connolly has insisted Newell has similar principles. So much so that he refused to change even in England’s bottom tier.
Connolly explained: “He loved the 3-5-2 formation. A lot of the time our play was focused on our wingers. Maybe that is because Harry himself was so good as a player in that sort of area. Whenever Harry speaks to people he commands respect and he expects the highest of standards. His understanding of the game and his demands were just incredible.
“Harry wanted to play total football. It didn’t matter to him that it was League Two in England because that is the way he wanted to play. He told us to play out from the back and if we made mistakes then he would come out in the media and take the blame. His man management was brilliant. “We went through a few shaky results but after that we went on a really good run and that is where he got his move to Notts County.”
Postecoglou will be hoping Kewell’s Champions League know-how will also come in handy as they prepare for their long-awaited return to the group stages. It was a trophy he lifted as a player back in 2005 with Liverpool.
Connolly revealed: “I remember talking to Harry about the managers he has worked with and under are unbelievable. “Never mind playing in the Champions League but Celtic players can sit down and speak to Harry who has won it at a massive club and that experience itself is unbelievable. “Celtic are also a massive club and it is a massive appointment from Ange.
“Celtic are going into the Champions League and Harry can definitely add something at the top end of the park. I don’t think the Celtic manager has brought him in because he is Australian or just because he is Harry Kewell. “He has brought him in because he will know what a top coach he is.”
Celtic’s international stars all returned over the weekend and will begin to work with Kewell out on the grass for the first time. Connolly thinks he will be a breath of fresh air.
The Irishman, who has remained in touch with Newell over the last four years, claimed: “As a coach, he is very, very good. Harry has some great ideas and tries to be different.
“He is not the sort of coach who will do the same things all the time because that is the way they have always been done. “He thinks outside the box.
“I remember at Crawley he was brilliant. Some of the attacking plays he put in place were unbelievable. “He did a lot of work on the wingers and the front players. The players at Crawley maybe weren’t at the same level as the Celtic boys just now but the moves and drills he put in were unbelievable. That is why I think he will do very well at Celtic.”
Connolly is in no doubt Kewell’s move could relaunch his own managerial career. The former Leeds star has taken up some stiff challenges in the lower leagues at Crawley, Notts County, Oldham Athletic and Barnet but his former player thinks he can blossom in the top level.
“He has not really had a right go at things in management,” Connolly, who is currently on-loan at Dundalk, insisted. “He went into Crawley and thought he could improve us as players but it was hard.
“He went to Oldham where there were issues with the owner and then to Barnet where he had no budget again. He also went to Notts County when a new owner came in and it didn’t really work out.
“He has never really had the right job that would have given him a real chance. “I can see him operating well at Celtic where he has the players and everything the top clubs have at their disposal to take things to the next level.”
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