Confirmed: Houllier is the new Villa manager

[TheEgo]

Whos the German?

Klinsmann

[chris_avfc]

Id be a very happy man!

[Moorski]

Correct - Klinsmann is the man in question

[fran_villa]

Sven would be better than Klinsmann imo,what has he even done in the game?.

[JulieB]

what has he even done in the game?.

has been extremely instrumental in developing the youth for their national side and a big reason why the young German squad did so well in the WC this summer.

I think you'll find Mr Lerner is well aware of this fact also. :idea:

[Demitri_C]

if its kilnsman id be delighted

but he wont come loves america too much

[MR.Smalljob]

Klinsmann imo,what has he even done in the game?.

Scored lots of goals.

[ChrisNichollsToe]

Whos the German?

Herr Flick :winkold:

[JulieB]

I found this interesting post from a German Fan Here

Where did this change in philosophy come from? You would have to go back to the summer of 2004, when German striking legend Jurgen Klinsmann was given a turn as coach. Wanting to shake things up after a disastrous Euro 2004 performance, Klinsmann decided to begin a regeneration process that came to a head in this year's world cup. He held workshops asking players and coaches in Germany how they wanted to play, how they wanted their style to be perceived by others, and what they thought German fans wanted to see. After much deliberation he decided to take a more attacking approach, telling his team to "pass the ball quickly from the back to the front line in order to create dynamic opportunities." While his critics had their way with him after the team lost to Italy 4-1 in an international friendly early in 2006, he proved his doubters wrong with the team's performance in the World Cup that summer. After stepping down as manager, he demanded that his assistant Joachim Loew take over the reins, as he would be the only person capable of continuing the development process that Klinsmann started. Loew deserves credit himself, as his offensive-minded formations, sometimes utilizing as many as five forwards, has proven to be very effective.

Perhaps just as important as the new philosophy was Jurgen Klinsmann's emphasis on the youth development system in Germany. Realizing that over the past couple of decades, Germany has fielded teams featuring veterans on their last tour of duty, Klinsmann wanted the DFB (German Football Association) to work diligently in developing their academy programmes so that the youth players were being brought up in this style of play and would be ready as soon as they hit the first division of the Bundesliga. The results have obviously paid off; the league has developed into one of the most exciting in Europe, and obviously not at the expense of the national team. This system is what made Germany stand out in 2010, and it also insures against the possibility that this crop becomes a 'one-off'; while it's unrealistic to say that every generation will produce players like Ozil and Muller, the DFB's track record so far shows that their development of young talent shouldn't slow down anytime soon.

An interesting comparison would be the youth system in the English Premiership League. While many have applauded their efforts to include foreign players to create the best game possible, the Football Association has lamented this decision for its negative impact on the national team, and many involved want to see them scale back the number of players allowed from foreign countries. Indeed, only 40% of the players in the Premier League are English, a number that places them at the bottom of the Big European leagues when it comes to domestic representation. Nowhere was the lack of development more evident than in Germany's 4-1 thrashing of England in the Round of 16 this year. Led by their "Golden Generation", the group of stars all born around the 1980 mark, England failed to get a proper hold on a game that quickly slipped out of their reach. Their older stars creaked along, failing to live up to the hype that has been following them over the past decade. There were next to no young prospects for the future, while the German team that blitzed through them are made up of faces that England will become familiar with over the next few years...that is, if they can get advance far enough.

[jim]

I heard a little rumour yesterday that whilst Randy was on his 'family holiday via Milan' he happened to meet an old German friend.

Randy's German friend's price to become Villa manager has been cut quite a bit in the last few days................. 2+2=5?????

Thing is, any new manager will want to quickly assess the squad before bring someone in. Not long left in the window, so we need to act quickly and decisively.

Has anyone else thought, that part of the reason we seem to be giving everyone a chance, is to allow our yet unamed manager, a chance to do that assessing?

No, but that is an interesting theory.

[BOF]

Interesting read Julie, thanks.

[fran_villa]

Klinsmann imo,what has he even done in the game?.

Scored lots of goals.

management,at club level he hasn't been that great though has he..maybe im wrong,if i'm been honest i never really seen to much of him.

[JulieB]

Has anyone else thought, that part of the reason we seem to be giving everyone a chance, is to allow our yet unamed manager, a chance to do that assessing?

Yes & as my previous post agreed.... that's why I wondered on the emphasis being placed on Youth players coming through...with the calibre of the rumoured candidate.

[quizme]

Re: Klinsmann, isn´t it well known it was Joachim Löw that was the brain behind the german team in the 2006 World Cup?

I dont want Klinsmann.

[NurembergVillan]

Good find Julie. Löw's success reminded me of this epic interview from when I was living over there -

It says a lot about Germany that they managed to reach the 2002 World Cup final in the middle of a prolonged slump but, as Paul Joyce explains, the expectations for this summer’s hosts and poor recent results leave their long-distance coach under pressure

After a 4-1 mauling by Italy in February left Germany without a victory over a top-ranked nation since defeating England at Wembley in October 2000, CDU politician Norbert Barthle demanded that manager Jürgen Klinsmann be hauled before the national sports committee “to explain what his concept is and how Germany can win the World Cup”. With a mere three per cent of the populace believing that a side ranked three places below Iran could now win the tournament, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel herself felt obliged to give the under-fire Klinsmann the dreaded vote of confidence: she was convinced that he and his team were “on the right path”.

Yet Klinsmann has not been lacking in concepts since accepting the post in the wake of Germany’s Euro 2004 debacle and declaring the 2006 World Cup to be winnable. Using management-consultancy skills learned during his spell as a sporting adviser to Los Angeles Galaxy, he set about revolutionising and globalising the outdated structures of the parochial German Football Association (DFB), recruiting sport psychologists, American fitness trainers and the Swiss match observer Urs Siegenthaler in an attempt to establish a “corporate identity” that would ensure long-term continuity of approach within the national set-up from youth-team level upwards.

Out went elder statesmen such as Dietmar Hamann, Jens Nowotny and Markus Babbel, to be replaced by a younger media-friendly generation of players able to implement his new philosophy of high-tempo attacking football. With this aim in mind, Klinsmann and team manager Oliver Bierhoff sought to install as the DFB’s technical director the successful national hockey coach Bernhard Peters, who had been openly critical of the inadequate training programmes and levels of fitness at Bundesliga clubs. Drafting in experts from other sports proved an innovation too far for the DFB, however. In February they rejected Klinsmann’s recommendation and unanimously selected his polar opposite, the dourly uninspiring Matthias Sammer, to a position that now makes him Klinsmann’s potential replacement.

The tactically naive inflexibility shown by the Klinsmann clan in implementing these reforms has also undermined the new regime’s attempts to reduce the influence on the national team of the twin-headed hydra of Bayern Munich and the German tabloid Bild. Klinsmann has resisted pressure from Munich to nominate his first-choice World Cup goalkeeper until May and sacked national goalkeeping coach and Bayern legend Sepp Maier in October 2004 for showing open favouritism towards Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn over Arsenal’s Jens Lehmann. Far from leaking stories to the influential Bild, Klinsmann has even abandoned the tradition of giving the tabloid an exclusive preview of the national team line-up on matchdays. “We are not in collusion with certain media,” stated Klinsmann on assuming office. “We will not do the work that these media would like.”

A principled stand, no doubt, but a dangerous one when results turn bad – particularly as Bayern’s president Franz Beckenbauer and Klinsmann’s arch-rival Lothar Matthäus both moonlight at Bild. Since Germany’s capitulation in Florence, the tabloid’s sports editor Alfred Draxler has pilloried the national coach as the ever-smiling “Grinsi-Klinsi”, while former Bayern midfielder Stefan Effenberg has openly called for Klinsmann to be replaced by Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Attention has also inevitably refocused itself on Klinsmann’s unpopular decision to remain based in California, communicating with Germany via video-conferencing and email. After Klinsmann failed to attend a workshop for the 32 World Cup team managers in Düsseldorf in March, Beckenbauer – this time in his capacity as head of the organising committee – lambasted Klinsmann’s “poor upbringing”: “It’s a matter of politeness,” said Kaiser Franz. “We travel round the world to show our respect to the competing countries and he can’t even turn up to this event.” Only the intervention of Chancellor Merkel in March could bring about an unconvincing reconciliation.

Yet Klinsmann is powerless to remedy the main source of public anxiety: the lack of individual class and tactical maturity in the squad, many of whom have gone backwards since the false dawn of the 2005 Confederations Cup. This is particularly evident in central defence, where Hannover 96’s Per Mertesacker couldn’t trap the proverbial bag of cement currently and Robert Huth continues to tackle like one. This might explain the public clamour for the reinstatement of the 33-year-old Borussia Dortmund stopper Christian Wörns, whose poor distribution and outspoken criticism of Klinsmann as “underhanded” and “dishonest” caused the latter to axe him from his World Cup plans in February – via his voicemail.

Sod’s law decreed that the next friendly would take place against the United States in Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park (the renamed Westfalenstadion). The DFB were sufficiently nervous about potential anti-Klinsmann protests from Borussia fans to launch a “package of de-escalation measures”, which included the distribution of 11,000 T-shirts bearing the somewhat desperate message “You for us – we for you”. Yet although isolated banners could be seen in the crowd proclaiming “Pro Wörns – anti California”, the USA reserve team conveniently fielded by Klinsmann’s good buddy Bruce Arena allowed Germany to secure a reassuring, if flattering, 4-1 victory.

Nevertheless, the German attack still looks over-reliant for invention on Michael Ballack, particularly now what his Bayern colleague Sebastian Deisler has been ruled out of the World Cup with a knee injury. Miroslav Klose, the Graeme Hick of German football, might score at will for Werder Bremen, but his goal against the USA was his first for the national team since December 2004, whereas Oliver Neuville’s late strike was only his sixth in 52 internationals.

Germany’s World Cup campaign may yet of course have a happy ending. The draw was as kind as it was in 2002 and the team’s only defeat in 12 home matches under Klinsmann came against world champions Brazil. Yet although 46 per cent of Germans rate his performance as “good” or “very good”, Grinsi-Klinsi’s eventual successors seem more likely to benefit from his long-term reforms than he does.

WhenSaturdayComes

[mjmooney]

Lerner would love to give KM head

I think that's going a bit far.

[JulieB]

It's interesting that Nuremburg & thinking about the 2 Klinsmann articles... we did actually play "decisive, attacking" football last Saturday for the first time in years.

Maybe he would prefer to be US based & be simply the strategic brains behind development of the club and not head coach.

I'm just wondering also, whether his reputation and the success of the young German national side built on the foundations he instilled, would mean that..should he be given a role at the football club.. it may also attract players of the highest calibre.

I definitely think that attendances will also increase at VP if we continue to play football like we did against West Ham.

Who knows?!.. We shall see... Interesting times!!

[NurembergVillan]

I think it'd be an interesting option. The DfB set-up at the time also had Bierhoff as "team manager", just looking after the players and being the conduit with the head coach whilst supporting on tactics. Might be that someone else would come into Villa as Head Coach, K-Mac as Team Manager and Klinsi as DoF.

[mjmooney]

Maybe he would prefer to be US based & be simply the strategic brains behind development of the club and not head coach.

"US based"? That would be a complete no-no for me.

I could buy the idea of Klinsmann as a DoF, but he would HAVE to move to Birmingham, otherwise forget it.

[JulieB]

"US based"? That would be a complete no-no for me.

Yeah but not forgetting the owner of the football club is also US based.

I don't think I'd have a problem with a DOF being abroad as long as he did his job right.

I'm sure he'd have accomodation here some of the time anyhow, like Lerner.

Day to day management of the team & training would obviously be a totally different kettle of fish

but then that might be done by someone else eg Kevin Mac.