DIRK KUYT: MAN OF THE PEOPLE

The new era under Rodgers Brendan  has begun.  Unbelievably England will be lead by Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to the European Championship campaign accompanied by Stewart Downing, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll and now with the unfortunate injury to Gary Cahill following Saturday's International, Martin Kelly makes it just over 25 per cent of the squad made up by Liverpool Football Club players which is a proud moment for the club.  Craig Bellamy's inclusion as an overaged player in the Great Britain Olympic squad is the icing on the cake.
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As proud a moment as the multi-representation will be, sadly as always happens at the end of season players move on.  Yesterday saw Dirk Kuyt move to Fernerbache for a reputed £800,000 signing a three year contract.  At almost 32 years old, with Rodgers looking to create room and a new style of play, its unlikely the LFC board would be willing to sanction long contracts for  players of his age barring the captain.

Dirk Kuyt is a players player.  He may not possess the explosive power of Steven Gerrard, the majesty of Lionel Messi or the subtlety of Xavi, but what he has in abundance is the heart of lion.  The are some who see him as a journeyman, but only a player and a supporter appreciates his contribution to the cause and knows the value of this archetypal team player.

He played in a variety of positions for the club having entered the fray as striker in the 2006/07 season joining from Feyenoord for £10 million.

Kuyt had a very bad habit which most players would kill for.  His knack of scoring goals important matches was evident in the 2007/08 season when his 7 goals in the Champions League propelled Liverpool to a semi-final against Chelsea.  And not forgetting his goal in the previous season’s final against AC Milan and the winning penalty in the semi-final shootout.  One of my ouststanding memories was an Arsenal fan saying to me after Kuyt's hat-trick against Man United in March of the 2011 season that he was really happy because of his never say die attitude.  The reason why the memory lived so poignantly with me is because the player’s very attitude is a direct contradiction to that of Arsenal’s creatively slick play and the fact that Arsenal were going through another winless season and fingers were being pointed about their attitude.

Liverpool’s owe the player a huge debt for his cameo performance in the 2012 Carling Cup Final.  His direct style almost forced a win in extra-time when Liverpool’s stop-start performance looked in danger of losing us the game.  He went on to clinically dispatch his spot-kick.  Kuyt was adept at taking penalties as he proved in a Merseyside Derby against Everton at Goodison in the 2007/08 season scoring two penalties in a 2-1 win.

There are many more talented players than Kuyt, but skill doesn’t make a player it’s mental attitude and he is very rarely bettered in that that discipline or department.  He has been a permanent fixture in the Dutch squad almost  since his debut in 2004 and given their technical excellence this takes some doing.  It is this attitude that made him cult hero at Liverpool is the same mould of Sami Hyypia and during his time at Anfield, his cover of the full-backs was often understated.

Journeyman do not pull off as many big moments as he did for our club.  Kuyt  scored 51 Premiership goals in 208 appearances (71 in 286 in all games)  and has 24 goals in 85 games for the Dutch national team.  He played right and left side of midfield even coming on in games to play in the centre of midfield and also filled in a striking role in the later part of his career when filling in many occasions. On the flanks, he was unorthodox not delivering conventional crosses as one would expect from an orthodox winger, but what he did possess giving his striking instincts, was the ability to sniff out chances coming in off the wing.

As a human being Dirk Kuyt is one of the finest.  In 2006 he set up the Dirk Kuyt Foundation which with projects for children in Brazil, Nepal and Ghana.  The Foundation now concentrates its efforts in the Netherlands with projects for disabled children. Speaking to the Liverpool Echo in April he said, “We started to support disabled children, providing them with all different kinds of sports. We’ve been doing that for the past four years and it’s been going really well.

“It has grown quickly and now we support around 64 projects across the country. There is not enough money for these children to do the things they like to do. We’re able to give them the chance they deserve to play sports.”

“I have a lot of contact with the people who work for the foundation and I get sent a lot of emails and see a lot of photos.

“The best thing is when you open an email and see the smiles on the faces of all those children and their parents. That’s why I do wanted to do it – to help people.

Read More at Liverpool Echo

Class can ne measured in many different ways.  If the 10 outfield players were Lionel Messi clones football would be boring.  It’s a misnomer to believe that Dirk Kuyt was a one trick pony.  He is a team player and also a principalled person off the field who leads by example.  Stevenn Gerrard’s comments about Kuyt say more about the player and the man than I could describe.

Gerrard told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Dirk is a great player, a great person and was a great servant to Liverpool.

"From the first day he came to the club, he was someone you could trust and knew that he would never let you down on the pitch.

Dirk Kuyt

He played in a Liverpool that was never the best, but like Gerrard, Carragher and Hyypia he never stopped trying to make them the best.  He is another who will go down in Liverpool folklore and at Anfield we like our players to be good, but just as importantly represent the values set out by Shankly and Paisley.  No higher praise can be given than to say he represented Liverpool Football Club with distinction.

Dirk Kuyt, YNWA.