HJ

someone said he has already praised him in a Norwegian news paper a couple of days ago. Well he's not going to dig his own grave now.

Not happy with the appointment but he's here now so welcome and good luck.

Still need the money. Houllier must have been promised some in JAnuary I would think. i think money has always been there just RL was sick of it been wasted I'm sure everyone Houllier buys will perform brilliantly! Problem solved.

He's able to win a football match so he might win a cup for us, just like any other manager linked to us that has a pulse might have, depending on luck. He's experienced and I'm fairly sure he'll get us top 10 finishes. He's well connected which might help bring some bargains from abroad. I'm worried about his ability to build a team or improve us. Not impressed with his transfer market activity at Liverpool, spent a shitload of money and they were treading water in the league.

Not just Cheyrou and Diao though. What about Ferri, Kippe, Song, Traore, Camara, Meijer, Diomede, Arphexad, Vignal, Sjölund, Biscan, Baros, Le Tallec, Sinama Pongolle and Luzi Bernardi? :winkold: Every manager out there has their fair share of poor signigns, but that's quite an extensive list. 6 years at pool, Monny had 4 years at villa so lets take 2/3rds and say he bought 12 not good enough in a 4 year for a good liverpool side. Lets look at Monny (who i supported, and still thank for reviving us before i get slammed) and list his failures for a side that werent at liverpools level under Houllier: Maloney, Routledge, Salifou, Davies, Knight, Carson, Harewood, Sidwell, Shorey, Heskey, Guzan, Downing, Beye. All managers buy players who dont live up to expectations for one reason or another. Houllier didn't buy as many players per season as MON did, he never needed to because he took over an excellent team. Houllier spent £131m on players, in 2010 terms that would be £245m, bought one brilliant player, a few useful ones and an awful lot of rubbish and took Liverpool from 3rd to 4th. How do you work out the figures? An excellent team that did finish third but was on the wane and finished 7th the next (with Houllier/Evans for 1/2 a year). Our team wasnt great but we had some decent players, who he shipped out i.e. Cahill for little and replaced for little better for alot more money. Im not trying to downgrade the work of MoN but just to say he won alot, bought some decent players and obviously knows what he is doing most of the time. Wouldn't say the team was on the wane at all having Owen and Carragher just broken through and Gerrard just about to as well. The football inflation adjusts transfers values so they are comparative across years. I just nicked the Houllier adjusted value from a blog so I don't know what system was used but one system is adjusting the values as a percentage of the current transfer record.

Not just Cheyrou and Diao though. What about Ferri, Kippe, Song, Traore, Camara, Meijer, Diomede, Arphexad, Vignal, Sjölund, Biscan, Baros, Le Tallec, Sinama Pongolle and Luzi Bernardi? :winkold: Every manager out there has their fair share of poor signigns, but that's quite an extensive list. 6 years at pool, Monny had 4 years at villa so lets take 2/3rds and say he bought 12 not good enough in a 4 year for a good liverpool side. Lets look at Monny (who i supported, and still thank for reviving us before i get slammed) and list his failures for a side that werent at liverpools level under Houllier: Maloney, Routledge, Salifou, Davies, Knight, Carson, Harewood, Sidwell, Shorey, Heskey, Guzan, Downing, Beye. All managers buy players who dont live up to expectations for one reason or another. Houllier didn't buy as many players per season as MON did, he never needed to because he took over an excellent team. Houllier spent £131m on players, in 2010 terms that would be £245m, bought one brilliant player, a few useful ones and an awful lot of rubbish and took Liverpool from 3rd to 4th.

So would I. I actually thought that was the best of part of the Houllier appointment..

Yes. By Houllier.

He did though Fran. He revolutionised their youth setup. It's in the link on the previous page. Well it does look like a revolution when the academy that had produced the likes of McManaman, Fowler, Owen, Carragher and Gerrard hasn't produced a decent player in 10 years since Houllier laid his hands on it..

But isn't that what Houllier did, quite a few times? Has Jol done it? Just as a reminder, Houllier's record with Liverpool was: 1998-99 - 7th 1999-00 - 4th 2000-01 - 3rd 2001-02 - (not counting as he was taken ill in October, but they were 3rd) 2002-03 - 5th 2003-04 - 4th If we had a manager who had done that for Villa over the period, we would regard him as a success in the league competition, surely? Liverpool! Villa! Why does no one see any difference between the expectations/possibilities between the two. If Houllier achieves those positions as a Villa manager I'll eat my cock.

I have asked Liverpool fans and they know about the failures, the Biscans, but they also point out Carragher and Gerrard and his total transformation of the youth setup, and Hyypia, Hamann, McAllister as transfer successes. I don't disagree that young players need an arm around and that's why I'm just as excited at the news that K-Mac might be hanging around because he has a proven track record of developing the youth. Whatever it is they need, he seems to have it in spades. So I think we have everything in place now. Gerrard and Carragher went through the youth system before Houllier got there, they became 1st team players at that time (Carragher a year before really). So if Houllier changed the youth set up it wouldn't have affected those two. Since Houllier did such a fantastic job making Liverpools youth system brilliant, why have they not got a single good player out of since he Houllier touched it?

Won the CL, beat Liverpools highest ever point total in PL twice

I'm with you, very few outfield players have the kind of hand control he does.

We aren't going to win trophies by signing shite Frenchmen because we don't have Owen, Gerrard and Carragher waiting for a team built around them. He had the makings of a title winning side there and failed to surround them with anywhere near the same level of talent.

Yes exactly

Why do we need a safe pair of hands? To stabilize ourselves to midtable? Safe pair of hands is exactly what I don't want to see, get someone excellent or who has the potential to be excellent. If the potential goes wrong and we're 15th for a season or two then so be it, at least we gave it a shot. Just plain old safe isn't going to get us anywhere in the current league, not even a Euro spot. Do not under estimate the upheavel of the past few weeks, along with the eventual addition of new coaching staff and methods. A new manager tends to result in a honeymoon period where the results are better than average more often than not. I don't think the chance of getting ourselves relegated with a manager appointment at this moment in time is one worth even considering.

Why do we need a safe pair of hands? To stabilize ourselves to midtable? Safe pair of hands is exactly what I don't want to see, get someone excellent or who has the potential to be excellent. If the potential goes wrong and we're 15th for a season or two then so be it, at least we gave it a shot. Just plain old safe isn't going to get us anywhere in the current league, not even a Euro spot.

A side that had just finished 3rd and had young Owen, Gerrard and Carragher coming through, how is that poor? The only truly class player he added to those was Hyypia and then rode their backs to a few cup victories.

If its so difficult to find a manager because the timing is so bad then let the caretaker go on, hire a few coaches for him and hire the next manager when the timing isn't oh so terrible anymore. Spurs for example have appointed their last 3 managers in Oct/Nov. Why September is so much worse than Oct/Nov I have no idea though.

His flop percentage was far far far higher than MON's. I aggree, but alongside all those FLOPS were some gems, like all managers at any level of football - but the key thing is - MON had flops and won nowt, Houllier had flops and won 6 trophies in 6 years.......... not too mention his 5 major trophies in French Football Houllier took over a side that had finished 3rd and MON took over a side that had finished 17th. Of course he's going to bloody win trophies if he's managing Liverpool or Lyon, doesn't make him a genius suddenly or make it likely he'd win anything at Villa. I suppose everyone bringing that up would have Houllier over Moyes because Moyes hasn't won anything?

There can be a vast difference between trying your hardest, which I'm sure Lerner et al are doing, and doing it the best way.

There's going to be 100 pages in a few hours when it gets confirmed or close it

Just like the "NRC tackles a lot" myth. No he doesn't anymore. And there's more to passing than just about managing to roll the ball to someone to make it a successful attempt in statistics. There was a time on Sunday when we were breaking, Albrighton running on the wing and it needed a crisp ball to space from NRC. Instead he slowly rolls it behind Albrighton who has to stop, defenders mark the forwards, the whole thing dies down. And its not isolated, he does that.

Djimi Traore Titi Camara Vladimir Smicer Bernard Diomede Gregory Vignal John Arne Riise Anthony Le Tallec Florent Sinama Pongolle El-Hadji Diouf Bruno Cheyrou Salif Diao Those are the players he signed from Ligue 1 while in Liverpool. He's a train wreck in transfer market. John Arne Riise was great for Liverpool, Smicer wasn't that bad either...The others yeah wasn't that great, but even Diouf even now has his good moments...He's just a hothead. He was managing Liverpool who aimed to challenge for the title and the best he could do was a good left back and a decent squad winger, it's just not good by any standards.

Djimi Traore Titi Camara Vladimir Smicer Bernard Diomede Gregory Vignal John Arne Riise Anthony Le Tallec Florent Sinama Pongolle El-Hadji Diouf Bruno Cheyrou Salif Diao Those are the players he signed from Ligue 1 while in Liverpool. He's a train wreck in transfer market.