Remarkably enough, I'm entirely neutral on his appointment. My immediate response was one of relief at who *didn't* get the job - Curbishley/Sven/Southgate...

So, the man who accused Ginola of cowardice, who signed Anelka on loan..won some domestic trophies...Apparently hugely respected in the game. I turn to the Liverpool fans on here - I think there are one or two as I recall - what can we expect? Is it all going to end in tears?

I have a villa supporting mate, who is now living on the outskirts of birmingham and he is horrified by this, wondering how the fuck did randy lerner manage to make his money.

The one thing in villa's favour is that he's 63, and it took him a couple of years to really bring the crazy to liverpool.

Presumably that's Brad Friedel on his way then ...

Didn't he sign Bruno Cheyrou who he hailed as the new Zidane?

We've done this before, but Randy Lerner made his pile from selling credit cards to Americans in the 90s, which was pretty much a one way bet. It didn't hurt that his father was chairman of the company, either.

'Les Vacances de M. Houllier'

Missed a trick there, GT.

;-)

I think he did a pretty good job at Liverpool until his heart attack - partially rebuilt the side, won a few cups, steady progress in the league.
IMHO rushed back too quickly after the surgery. The run-in resulted in a "nearly" year in 2002 - Arsenal's fine form meant that LFC couldn't quite catch them and the last-minute defeat in Leverkusen was very disappointing.
Bad transfer decisions in the summer of 2002, the team collapsed that autumn and he couldn't restore the situation.

Rafa made some changes to Liverpool, bringing in some Spanish players right away, but most of the team that won in Istanbul had been bought by Houllier. I think that one of the biggest problems was that Houllier couldn't buy any good strikers. He bought a range of young guys who never did well at Liverpool beyond scoring a big domestic cup goal here and there and never really did well elsewhere. Cisse had a rough time at Liverpool but I think part of that was the broken leg and part of that was not playing him alone up front. Had Rafa used Cisse in the same way he used Torres, Cisse would have done much better at Liverpool. I bring this up because Cisse was a Houllier purchase and should have been the one striker that Houllier bought who could have been something.

Of course there were many stories that broke later about Houllier feeding stories to the press about Owen and Fowler to turn supporters' opinions and ease the sale of both players. This story might sound familiar to Villa fans (i.e., David O'Leary).

There is an in depth analysis of Houllier's time at Anfield provided here

tomkinstimes.com/2010/09/gerard-houllier-the-dynasty-chapter/

Considering how paranoid Houllier was at Houllier (where the vast majority of fans were behind him), and how notoriously fickle Villa fans are, this is going to be hilariously messy.

We're not fickle...

www.whoateallthepies.tv/aston_villa/3750...villa-park-2006.html

O'Leary first saw Villa fans fickleness back in 1999/2000, when his then third placed Leeds side turned up at Villa Park, and the Villa fans had turned on the team within fifteen minutes. The Arsenal and Forest fans I was with couldn't believe it. I could, but only because I used to go to Villa Park 3/4 times a season.

robw wrote:
There is an in depth analysis of Houllier's time at Anfield provided here

tomkinstimes.com/2010/09/gerard-houllier-the-dynasty-chapter/

The section Transfers In is stunning in terms of the quantity of players moving in and out of Liverpool during his time there, including the number of players who were purchased but never really saw any playing time. Yet another comparison to O'Leary (although mostly at Leeds). If Lerner has cut the transfer budget, Houllier will likely be frustrated.

It's a very interesting piece.

I think that Houiller has changed a lot since he took over Liverpool, and that the context at Villa is significantly different.

ursus arctos wrote:
It's a very interesting piece.

I think that Houiller has changed a lot since he took over Liverpool, and that the context at Villa is significantly different.

It does seem as if things were more stable in terms of player movement at Lyon but he obviously had less control at Lyon in terms of transfers. Of course, he also lasted at Lyon for 2 (?) years only, so the lack of control might be a problem for him and he did have some run-ins with players. Not that he is alone in that regard, though. I would say that he is probably a better choice than some of the other names that were rumored to be possible candidates for the job. Bob Bradley has done ok with the US, but has not proved to be a superstar (i.e., any smart moves he made in the 2nd half of games in WC2010 functioned to fix poor--and perhaps overly conservative--tactical choices in the first half of these games); Jol was certainly not going to be freed from his contract and probably wouldn't want to leave now that Ajax is in the CL. So by comparison Houllier doesn't look so bad.

Aulas has always had veto power over any transfers at OL.

Say what you want about him, but Houiller is a smart guy, and has survived some of the most venomous viper pits in world football. I can't help but think that he's gone to Villa with his eyes open, and is on the same wavelength as Lerner.

My first reaction was hysterical laughter but after reading his record perhaps he may do something and surely he is a better choice than Sven et al.

Remember that he is one of only two people in the world who think that Emile Heskey is a left winger.

The one thing I could'nt get my head around with Houllier was the fact that he did'nt know his home market when it came to signing players.
In all his time at Anfield we never signed a decent Frenchman when there was a plethora of them about as Wenger was proving at the time.
As a person he seemed decent enough however brace yourself for 8 men behind the ball at all times as this is his M.O on the pitch.

Great title, GT3. Was it based on this?



I enjoyed that long article linked to as well. It briefly gave too much space to a "philosophy", but otherwise very interesting.