League 2 team in talks to hire former Leeds star as manager

Leeds United legend Harry Kewell is set to become manager at Crawley Town, according to a report from The Argus.

The manager position at The Checktrade Stadium is currently open after the previous manager, Dermot Drummy, was let go with one match to go in the League 2 season, after Crawley Town had slid down the table. The Reds finished 19th last season with 51 points, only five points above Hartlepool United and relegation. Drummy had spent the previous five years at Chelsea, coaching the youth and reserve teams for the Premier League giants. While Crawley Town had started the season brightly, they had only won one game in the last 14 matches.

The 38 year-old Kewell came up through the ranks as a youth player at Leeds, and went on to make over 180 senior appearances for the Whites, scoring 45 goals and was named the PFA young player of the year in 2000 and was in the Premiership team of the season that year as well. He appeared twice in the World Cup for Australia, in 2006 and 2010, and moved to Liverpool in 2003. After spending time in Turkey at Galatasaray, he went back to Australia to play for a couple different Melbourne clubs, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart in the Australian A-League. He retired from playing in 2014.

Kewell coached the U-23s at Watford last season, and takes up the hot seat at Crawley Town for his first experience at managing the senior squad, after receiving his coaching badges in 2015. He was sacked back in April after a string of bad results, but he did help three players make their debut for the senior squad during the season and five others made the bench during his time at Watford.

Kewell joins former teammate Alan Smith in League 2, as Smith is part of Kevin Nolan’s coaching set up at Notts County. Smith is currently a player-coach for the Magpies, and served as caretaker manager before Nolan was appointed back in January after the sacking of John Sheridan.