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.
Barnet’s head of football, Dubliner Dean Brennan, will take charge of first-team matters as they seek a permanent replacement for the former Australia international.
Kewell, 42, who has previously managed a number of other clubs in the lower leagues, was appointed at Barnet in June.
The club are 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.
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.
Brennan, 41, lined out for a plethora of English non-league clubs throughout his 12-year playing career, and as a manager steered Wealdstone from England’s National League South to the National League during the shortened 2019/20 season.
He later turned down an approach from Barnet to be their manager before eventually assuming the head-of-football role at the same club, with Kewell hired as head coach.
