18 Oct 2012

'Disappointed' LFC hero admits: I left Anfield because of Kenny Dalglish...

Fenerbache star Dirk Kuyt is fondly remembered by Liverpool fans, and although he went through regular barren spells at Anfield, his effort, dedication and commitment could never be questioned. In his last year at Anfield, the Dutchman expressed his frustration over his reduced pitch time several times, and now, he's opened up about the reasons he felt he had to leave Liverpool.

In an interview with ESPN, Kuyt enthused about the 'six wonderful years' at Liverpool, and praised Dalglish's open-door communication policy, but admitted that the LFC legend's decision to ignore his impact on the team and turn him into a bench-warmer forced him to leave the club. He explained:

"It was hard. The last season wasn't as I had expected it. I wanted to be more involved.

"The season before, I was the team's top scorer and the player with the most assists, but new players came in and my time on the pitch was less than expected.

"All I could do was work very hard and fight until the end [but] he [Dalglish] didn't make them [decisions] in my favor.

"I was very disappointed not to play on those big occasions in the finals. I think every player not playing in the team is disappointed, and so was I".


Kuyt's frustration is understandable; he was dumped in favour of Dalglish's favourites, and it must have been maddening to have to sit on the bench whilst the breathtakingly ineffective megaflop Stewart Downing started every game.

I'll admit, I was never Kuyt's biggest fan, but as he points out, he was the team's top scorer/assist maker with 14 goals and 7 assists, and it made no sense to marginalise him from the team.

Kuyt was also keen to stress that his departure had nothing to do with Brendan Rodgers:

"It had nothing to do with the new manager. He even gave me a phone call after I made the decision to go to Fenerbahce. He wished me all the best in my new career. That was very polite of him".

Kuyt also called for fans to give Rodgers more time after a rocky start to the league season:

"You can see the team needs a little more time. Hopefully the supporters and everyone gives them a bit of time because Brendan is a great coach. I'm sure if the team keeps working hard they'll get better and better".

With 7 goals in 12 games so far, Kuyt seems to be doing well in Turkey.

Jaimie Kanwar


60 comments:

  1. good luck,Dirk........thanks for the happy days of urs u shared with us.............

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  2. Should have played in front of Henderson every time. One of Dalglish's unfortunately all too common mistakes.

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  3. It was the right time for Kuyt to depart the club we will never forget his true grit hard working ethic he had since he made his debut.

    He has a point about last season he was more deserved of a place in the first team then some players especially on the right of midfield he was way better then Hendo in that position.

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  4. We still love u no katter what Kuyt. U are the best classic player. Hatrick against Man Utd will never forgotten. YNWA. Please rejoin Liverpool soon.

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  5. Thanks for everything Dirk, but your time to move on had come.

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  6. kenny knws best

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  7. Breathtakingly ineffective megaflop should be the name of Downings autobiography!

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  8. could do with him now!!

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  9. He would have even more competition for a team place now, with the emergence of Sterling, Suso, Assaidi,
    Kuyt gave his all for the team, no player can do more than that, good luck to him.

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  10. KD sent our club backwards im glad he is gone bring on the bright future YNWA!!! Kuyt you were class and got the goals we needed..

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  11. To be fair i felt for him and maxi. to be bench warmers when the replacements are international class is fair enough but to be warming the bench when one replacement managed no goals nor assists all season and the other had 2 goals to his name was not what we expect from kenny. KK dropped those players that ensured he got the job permanently and went with super expensive super flops. This eventually cost him his job too.

    Kuyt is an anfield legend and will always be - i never so a plaer put so much effort in.

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  12. I doubt Downing would write an autobiography. He'd probably think about it, turn back the way he came and pass the responsibility on to someone else.

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  13. he is in the same class of john barnes , king kenny and ian rush. he is wvery hard working. his work rate started since the rafa benitez era. Although there are times he is not a regular scorer, but does score some crucial goals as what he did in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 season.

    Long liove king kuyt.

    Wish u all the best,

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  14. Dalglish`s 2nd coming , was for me the worst managerial
    spell , in the history of the club . The money he wasted
    in such a short time was unbeleivable . FSG should
    share some of the blame for giving him so much so
    quickly . But ultimately the buck stops with him.
    And now he has the nerve to put his name to whatever
    rubbish , the Mirror`s ghost writer decides to print .

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  15. One of the few good decisions taken by kenny dalglish actually was to bench dik kuyt...The guy has always been poor and was getting old. He was for 6 years just an average player at best. He had no game! He could not dribble, pass or cross and was piss poor in front of goals missing sitters on countless occasions. Calling this guy a legend, comparing him to LFC greats like john branes and wanting him to come back is beyond me. Seriously guys, thats ridiculous! It seems like you people need very little to impress you...

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  16. Love Dirk but I am sure the very lucrative 3 year contract that Fenerbache offered the 31 yr old might have had something to do with it too.

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  17. One of my favourite player, admired for his work rate and dedication. Thought Dalglish should have used him more.

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  18. Love Dirk alwayz scored the crucial goals felt he could have helped against the scums because he would have played a central role suported by Suarez and Sterling..Fondly remembered for knocking the scums out of the FA last season,the hatrick against them,carling cup final,against Milan in the CL finals,winning pen against Chelsea in the CL Semi..where do we stop KUYTY..good luck

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  19. Jamie,
    It's your blog and of course you may say as you please. I, too, am not in awe of Downing and was not happy at his signing. However, it is disrespectful, no matter what you may think of him, to refer to him as a megaflop and is a detraction from what is normally a well-written and well-reasoned blog.
    Please retain the moral high-ground and don't descend to the levels of less well-written blogs or, Heaven forbid, the levels of the gutter press - you're much better than that.

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  20. How poor he is still much better than downing or hendo.

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  21. Yup, no one knows best what a moron Kenny is apart from Kenny himself.

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  22. It was quite baffling that Kenny Dalglish preferred to play Downing and Henderson in every game instead of Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt who had formed a great partnership alongside Suarez and were simply unplayable season before. I think it was one of those decisions which were responsible for terrible league finish last season.

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  23. This site proves beyound doubt Liverpool fc fans are living in the past
    we won it 5 times , but not for years

    Hey With Dirk in the team Liverpool won nothing

    I hope I'm wrong but last year is going to seem like a great season compared to this one come may 2013

    And for those who GO to anfield don't tell me this year is anywhere near as good as last season so far .
    Last season we made chance after chance
    Away Keepers were man of the match most weeks !

    The old Liverpool killed the game away from home first twenty minutes
    Well that's how we play now every week home & away

    Things can only get better !

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  24. great player for liverpool....gave his all.....
    Good luck for the future Dirk!

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  25. kuyt will alwais be a liverpool legend

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  26. No it hadn't ! Dropping Kuyt down to the bench and consistently playing under performing 'wannabe's' was one of Dalglish's most stupid decisions. Kuyt wore his heart on his shirt and always gave 100%, not like the dross that replaced him.

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  27. First you claim that LFC fans are living in the past, then you go on and harp about last season, which is in the past. Funny that.

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  28. Gary this season is a direct result of dalglish's wastefulness in the transfer market. He bought extremely poor players for inflated prices and we are not gonna even make half of that back. Henderson, downing caroll and now for some reason enrique are the worst players ive seen at liverpool. I mean rafas flops babel insua voronin and even aquaman were much better than this lot!
    Brendan will be a success of that I have no doubt.

    It was the wrong time to move on kuyt and maxi. Between them how many goals/assists did we sell about 20?

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  29. Ye, right, 'King Kenny wanted to do something different', alright, like destroying Liverpool, with his clueless managerial tactics!.

    No sentimental silliness here, just the truth, sorry to say, but fact is fact!!!.

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  30. So, so true Brian, but you can never convince some blinded, sentimental Kenny's fans, what they should not forget is that, they are LFC supporters and NOT Kenny's.

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  31. great player for liverpool..score all the important goals.one of my favourite

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  32. Sorry @Deaththekid, but you should concentrate fully on Cricket or maybe Baseball?.

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  33. Dead right.
    Hendo should not have been played on the right of midfield.
    Henderson is a centre midfielder and playing him out of position helped nobody, especially not Henderson.

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  34. Hendo plays in a totally different position, or he should have been. You cant compare the 2!

    Its like playing Suarez in centre mid and saying Allan is much better centre midfielder.... isnt he bound to be?!

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  35. but if he had Crouchy alongside him from the start in 2007 final maybe we would have won something!

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  36. He was probably the hardest working player on the pitch everytime he played! we could have still used him this season, no one can deny his 100% commitment to LFC!

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  37. Last season we lacked a killer 25 goal a season striker and Lucas for much of the season. We played some fantastic stuff at times but it just seemed to fall apart near the end. Now as for Kuyt..I seem to remember people calling him not good enough not so long ago..I hold a season tick et 103 in the Kop and the football is ok but we played better last year. Now people will allow Rodgers to finish 10th but Kenny, a legend, was afforded 18 months to turn the club from relegation fodder to champions? Joke far too many hypocrites on social media who never go the match and I'm on about locals as well who the chance but never do..Pay your way have your say
    Richie

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  38. It seerms to me that Dirk Kuyt was often not fully appreciated. Not only was he the hardest-working player at the club, the entire time he was there, although he was far from a prolific goal scorer, he did score some of the biggest, most important goals for LFC, of any player we had.

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  39. lobbing the ball repeatedly into the box was not good football under kenny imo kenny was arrogant, cocky and did not care anymore about what we fans wanted he had to go week in week out the same old nonsense henderson, adam, downing, carrol that lot was horrid. BR will become a legend imo he's got us playing some beautiful football all liverpool needs right now was a striker (something dalglish for only God knows what reason refused to buy in the january window when top four was still possible for liverpool) and all of this u have to go and watch the games cut that out i am an international fan and i still back my team finding some way to stream all of my liverpool matches if u can't realise that kenny was going to destroy us then my good man best of luck in life

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  40. also i have this question for u how much longer did u think dalglish would have taken to play the kids robinson, wisdom, suso, raheem, pacheco, shelvey, adjordan, coady,...etc

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  41. lol...im not a freakin indian or american! But seriously though, i still prefered kuyt on the right wing than henderson...

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  42. A loyal servant to the club. I put him above Steve Macmanamam.

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  43. Kenny gave matches to Robinson Shelvey Sterling Pacheco..your point? We played better football and thats a fact...good luck in life? Hahah!! Idioit..If Lucas didn't get injured who knows were we would have ended up incidently the man nearly won 2 trphy with such a bad team? Pratts like you nrever been to a match in your life stick to local team mate

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  44. For all the wonderful memories Dirk, May you know the same wonder of experience in all your ventures to come...

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  45. wow sterling only had cameos robinson to pacheco was loaned out i follow my club don't try to pull a wool over my head shelvey was on loan to recalled only because lucas was injured kenny was mistreating the youth who if had left would have left liverpool in shambles think about that pls take off your kenny blinkers so what almost winning two trophy's is good enough with an investment of over 75milliion pounds he deserved the sack and i am glad that happened

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  46. Reina, Johnson, Jose Enrique, Agger, Skrtel, Gerrard, Shelvey, Kuyt, Maxi, Suarez, Bellamy.

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  47. Insua was bought at very young age at 1 mil and sold for 4 mil...Voronin was signed on free transfer...Babel scored more goals than Carroll and Aquaman was loaned out by Hodgson and Kenny!!! Kuyt (8 mil) and Maxi (1 mil) were also bought by Rafa!!!

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  48. Why is it Liverpool are HELL BENT on playing players out of position,next we'll have Reina up front ffs

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  49. dalglish dropped peter beardsley then unloaded him to everton , i spoke with peter over this , he said dalglish just blanked him , and wanted him out of the club too, before the 85 european cup final , when joe fagan was the boss , real boss , we knew peter , john barnes and aldo were coming in the new season joe was still manager then , dalglish signed glen hysen , saying he was the new hanson , then sign jimmy carter for massive money ,back then for a unkown footy player at millwall , played him for half game then sold him back to millwall for a 3rd of the price paid for him , i like others thought moody going on's hysen wasnt any better either , then the bob paisley, joe fagan team got older n older dalglish couldnt replace them , HIS MATES , or get rid of them , so he went , so called retirement , i respect rogers cos he's honest and up front , also courageous bringing kids into the first team ,

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  50. if i squandered 75mil id expect to be buried alive

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  51. Kuyt could not score in a brothel. Yes he scored in some profile games but he should have been transferred a lot earlier. Good on Kenny for recognizing that Kyut was a work horde and nothing else

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  52. Kuyt was never a top class player but he was streets ahead of the total mediocrities KD played in his place. Pity he was so shabbily treated. Wonder how long we'll have to wait for Henderson to score a hat-trick against Man United?

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  53. I think that Dalglish identified the players that he wanted and Comolli was the man who went and got them, so don't blame KD for squandering money, every team that Comolli has been associated with has got rid of him for being ineffective. KD may have been a bad judge, but at least he stuck by his convictions in a player. LFC played very well last season but there wasn't any money availablefor another striker and the club obviously didn't trust KD's judgement.
    Looks like BR has got it all right so far, but needs time and a bit of luck

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  54. Under Roy Hodgson and Kenny Daglish era Dirk Kuyt look like struggle to score the goal.He found difficult life with under two both manager.He having good energy up and down every where he chasing the ball but why he very affraid to dribbling or cannot penetrate beating defender. I think he is will comes not effective to playing for LFC player.

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  55. kuyt had a touch like a rapist .legend my arse .very very average player.not fit to wear a red shirt .very lucky to have 6 years. kenny was dead right

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  56. Ha ha!! If the managers name was not Kenny Dalglish fans would've burnt him alive for wasting £85m on Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adam. People comparing Kenny with Rodgers. Rodgers spent £25m. So compare with equal terms. One question for Kenny lovers, will you have a midfield of Gerrard, Sahin, Allen/Lucas, or Gerrard, Adam, Henderson/Lucas? People saying we've created lots of chances, watch the matches again and tell me how many of them were clear chances and how many of them were created and scored by Kenny's boys?? Raul meireles, Dirk Kuyt, Maxi gave him the permanent job and the first thing he did refused to give Meireles a contract which was due, benched Kuyt and Maxi. Downing couldn't do it in the whole season what Meireles did in one game against Arsenal. Kenny is a legend as a player but one of the worst managers in the modern football.

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  57. If it was not Dirk Kuyt your Kenny wouldn't have won the Carling Cup final. He scored in the final, remember?

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  58. Ye but missed open goals aginst wigan,blackburn,man city etc etc etc etc etc he was unbelievably bad in front of goal

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