Confirmed: Houllier is the new Villa manager

[villan-scott]

With everybody listing Houllier's poor signings for Liverpool I think we should try and collate a list of all Wenger's, SAF's, and Mourinho's doughnut buys, I'm sure there are also some pretty scary names on that list.

How about:

Reyes

Grimandi

Manniger

Jeffers

Djemba x2

Kleberson

Forlan (who is class in Spain)

Tiago

Pizarro

Belletti

Sidwell

Del Horno

Jarosik

The list is endless. Those 3 managers are the most successful in the Premier League era, and have signed their fairshare of crap, so judging Houllier on his bad signings is neither here nor there. We need to give him a chance and allow him time, as I'm sure he has what it takes to make us a success.

My point wasn't about transfers at all though it was about young players comming through .

My post wasn't aimed at you personally, it was aimed at every fan whose only argument against Houllier is the fact he signed some shit players at Liverpool, and I was just pointing out that every manager in the league signs some shit, and every manager in the league signs a gem, it's part and parcel of football.

And to your point about Houllier not bringing through youth I suggest you research his role with the FFF, and his role in setting up Clarefontaine, and his influence over Carragher, Gerrard and Owen, 3 of the best Liverpool players of the last decade. If the youngsters are good enough they will get their chance, if they're not they won't, simple.

[CVByrne]

No I don't agree Brian and I don't see why a managers contract should be public knowledge, if the manager does well enough he can get a contract extension. Or we can give him a 2 year contract with a preset agreement that we can fire him for a preset amount, say 1mil in May.

But what if Houllier does okish this season, say 8/9th and as expected get's a summer to make his mark. We give him another season and he gets sacked, but leaves the club damaged. We are less attractive to a new manager and we'll have some rebuilding to do.

I personally thought he left Liverpool an absolute mess as did Benitez, both were more miss than hit in the transfer market. Which is what has me worried. I personally thought after early reservations that O'Neill turned out to be top notch with his transfers.

We don't have the money to have the number of misses I'm expecting in the next 2 windows with Houllier.

[Jez]

No I don't agree Brian and I don't see why a managers contract should be public knowledge, if the manager does well enough he can get a contract extension. Or we can give him a 2 year contract with a preset agreement that we can fire him for a preset amount, say 1mil in May.

But what if Houllier does okish this season, say 8/9th and as expected get's a summer to make his mark. We give him another season and he gets sacked, but leaves the club damaged. We are less attractive to a new manager and we'll have some rebuilding to do.

I personally thought he left Liverpool an absolute mess as did Benitez, both were more miss than hit in the transfer market. Which is what has me worried. I personally thought after early reservations that O'Neill turned out to be top notch with his transfers.

We don't have the money to have the number of misses I'm expecting in the next 2 windows with Houllier.

Absolute mess?

They won the champions league sooner after he left.

Also what are the guarantees any manager will come in and be perfect.

Your talking like Houllier will be shit, we'll sack him and hire Jol and he will be good, thats just what will happen!

Nonsense, for all you know Jol could be a complete disaster if he came.

[CVByrne]

villain-scott peoples worry about Houllier is that the state he left Liverpool in required rebuilding. If after 2 years we are in that sort of state it could be a disaster for the club. All the past 4 years of building under O'Neill and Lerner could be reversed. That's my main worry. That's why I bring up his transfer record.

[CVByrne]

Absolute mess?

They won the champions league sooner after he left.

Also what are the guarantees any manager will come in and be perfect.

Your talking like Houllier will be shit, we'll sack him and hire Jol and he will be good, thats just what will happen!

Nonsense, for all you know Jol could be a complete disaster if he came.

For the Last time Jez even Liverpool fans know they were beyond lucky to win the champions league, late strike from Gerard to get out of the group, phantom goal and Gudjonssons miss to beat Chelsea and 7 lucky mnutes against Milan.

Benitez signed Alonso and they didn't even come close to beating Everton to 4th. They were rubbish in the Premier League that season, rubbish. So stop bringing up how lucky they were in a cup competition. Cardiff made the FA Cup final, that make them among the best 2 teams in England that year? Of course not.

[CVByrne]

Oh and on Jol he hasn't failed at a club he's been at yet, he has left those clubs in very good condition after he has departed. He is also well regarded by the clubs he's managed so far. Hughes the same, did a great job at Wales, Blackburn and was hard done by at City considering his replacement failed to get 4th too. Moyes has done well at Everton on zero budget too.

So none have had failures of the level Houllier ended at Liverpool. THAT is my worry.

[GarethRDR]

For the Last time Jez even Liverpool fans know they were beyond lucky to win the champions league, late strike from Gerard to get out of the group, phantom goal and Gudjonssons miss to beat Chelsea and 7 lucky mnutes against Milan.

>Enter "You make your own luck/can only beat the team in front of you" rhetoric here<

[CVByrne]

Many teams have a good cup run, nobody get's lucky over 38 league games that's why we've only ever seen the best win the Premier League, thats why cracking the top 4 is so hard.

[GarethRDR]

Too true. But I for one sure as heck wouldn't mind going on one of those lucky cup runs, especially if we end up actually winning something.

[BOF]

No I don't agree Brian and I don't see why a managers contract should be public knowledge, if the manager does well enough he can get a contract extension. Or we can give him a 2 year contract with a preset agreement that we can fire him for a preset amount, say 1mil in May.

Then you are limiting yourself to the standard of manager who will accept that kind of situation. We're back to the 'paying peanuts getting monkeys' scenario. If you want a decent manager you have to put faith in him with a decent contract. It's as simple as that.

[Jez]

Many teams have a good cup run, nobody get's lucky over 38 league games that's why we've only ever seen the best win the Premier League, thats why cracking the top 4 is so hard.

But isn't that what Houllier did, quite a few times?

Has Jol done it?

[Rob182]

CV, your whole point is based around the fact that you think we could/ should get Jol. What if Jol signs an extension at Ajax? What if Randy has spoken to Jol and he's informed him that he's not interested in Aston Villa....?

[BOF]

But isn't that what Houllier did, quite a few times?

Exactly. We're hiring someone who knows how to do it. We've just lost a manager who never did it in England.

[nobler]

You don't get lucky winning the champions league, it's just too tough. Whether you like liverpool or not their achievements that season winning the champions league was absolutely remarkable. The Milan team they played was a fantastic side absolutely at the top of their game, Liverpools success that day was one of the best in modern history, imo.

[NeilS]

Oh and on Jol he hasn't failed at a club he's been at yet, he has left those clubs in very good condition after he has departed. He is also well regarded by the clubs he's managed so far. Hughes the same, did a great job at Wales, Blackburn and was hard done by at City considering his replacement failed to get 4th too. Moyes has done well at Everton on zero budget too.

So none have had failures of the level Houllier ended at Liverpool. THAT is my worry.

If by failures you mean winning trophies. Then yes none of Jol, Moyes and Hughes have had the same amount of failures as Houllier.

[NurembergVillan]

Villa fans baffle me at times.

Who were people expecting? José Mourinho? We’ve never appointed a more successful manager than Gérard Houllier and there’s literally nobody with a better CV who we could attract – in or out of work. Jol got fired by Spurs as they’d failed to meet their goals, same with Hughes. Goals that were the same as ours.

It seems to me that a lot of this comes down to bragging rights amongst fellow fans. We wanted Hitzfeld or Koeman or Klinsmann because it’s something shiny and new that nobody else in the Prem has had. Liverpool's former boss Houllier? It’s like going out with one of your mates’ exes.

People are moaning that he sold Carew. Yep, he signed him in the first place too. They’re moaning that he signed Heskey. Yep, Heskey scored more goals under Houllier than the rest of his career put together (a guess but likely true).

Played boring football did he? What? Worse than Spain have for the last 4 years? Or Villa for that matter.

If he signs the type of crap players he did at Liverpool and the team perform as badly as his did there I'm looking forward to seeing strikers score over 20 goals per season, more trophies than we've won in the last 30 years and the majority of his players go on to win the Champions League within months of him departing VP.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Don't talk about Spain. :yawn:

[Ads]

Luck doesn't exist. How about that?

[briny_ear]

It seems like Houllier is pretty much a done-deal (it really would be a disaster if for some reason the appointment fell through now) so we may as well make the most of it. As many have pointed out, it could be a lot worse, looking at the candidates who were actually available.

I'm not sure Houllier's name was anywhere in the frame when this whole thing started, so you have to give the club credit for identifying he was detachable from his current role.

We have a decent squad assembled by the previous manager, so even if Houllier makes no new transfers in that are any good, we should be competing reasonably well.

I'm most interested to see what constraints he will be working under - will he have to implement the rather nebulous "sell to buy" or "wages to revenue" policy that was apparently imposed on O'Neill? Not sure Houllier is used to that sort of thing.

[fran_villa]

i'm not mad on the appointment of GH myself,and i would have liked to get Moyes of Jol but i get what other fans are saying you cant just make these managers come to us at bloody gun point can you..imo though,if we couldnt get Moyes or Jol i would have rathered us if went for an up and coming manager like Lamber/Coyle.my main worrie with GH is his age and will he be here long enough to build something big..