Confirmed: Houllier is the new Villa manager

[VillaRoy]

Didn't Houllier ship out Friedel and Warnock as soon as he arrived at Anfield?

Sent Warnock out on loan which was understandable as he would have been young then and sold Friedel 2 years after becoming manager.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

You'd think it was confirmed by reading on here.

To be fair, it does seem pretty certain. Keeps VT alive anyway...

Plus the photo's of Houllier seen at Villa Park alongside Lerner makes it's pretty concrete too me.

[YLN]

I hear Baros might be available. A swap perhaps for Carew?

[TrentVilla]

Didn't Houllier ship out Friedel and Warnock as soon as he arrived at Anfield?

Hardly, Houllier left Anfield 3 years before Warnock.

[C4rvillan]

can't wait for the modern-day equivalent of igor biscan strutting his stuff at villa park.

I can't wait for the modern day eguivalent of Fred, Mahmadou Diarra, Toulalan strutting his stuff at VP.

[Ballybunion_Ice]

GH Liverpool Top 10 In's & Out's.

Some good sales some bad buys.

[Maradona10]

Look with Moyes, it's a risky move! Why would he move to a side where he has a very good side to a team with uncertainty? The timing is shit, I'm pretty sure if it was the summer then maybe we would have a chance of getting Jol or Moyes! Comparing managers to players, one they might not have agents to push moves, they come from old school football where loyalty stands! I have no doubt we approached Everton but it probably got an instant rejection!

[NormandyVillan]

More worried about not losing? We got more points than in previous years, finished 6th in the league and won at Anfield and Mould Trafford. Yep that strikes me as more worried about losing than trying to win

But that IS what struck me when watching Villa play. Especially in some home games when the onus was us to win.

Some examples:

Man City at home: 1-1 around the 75-minute mark and we were dawdling over every throw-in as if we were happy enough with that result.

Liverpool at home: looked happy to give Liverpool the initiative all game. The fact that Liverpool were only making marginally more effort to win the game made for 92 minutes of tedium until Torres finally punished Villa for their lack of ambition.

Man United at home: content to hold on for a draw for about an hour against 10 men.

I can't be bothered to look up the exact figures, but I'm pretty sure that Villa have drawn more matches overall than any other Premier League team over the past 4 years, and by quite some margin. I don't think that was entirely by chance either.

[C4rvillan]

can't wait for the modern-day equivalent of igor biscan strutting his stuff at villa park.

I can't wait for the modern day eguivalent of Fred, Mahmadou Diarra, Toulalan strutting his stuff at VP.

Shit just noticed the spelling mistake. C'mon Cracker, sort this out old boy.

[Oaks]

I dont like Houllier i really dont and i hate his brand of football, but it could be worse. Should have been Sven, he is the best out of job manager in my opinion, but i guess the board dont want big personalitys, i dont know why, maybe its a bit of a backlash from MON. All i want is a good manager, i dont care if there a word removed to be honest.

[danceoftheshamen]

Staggering the amount of negative people on here. Then i really don't think it would matter who was appointed as some would still find some way of turning it into a negative so i guess with Houllier's age, former heart problem & consequential loss of form at Liverpool it merely makes him an easy target for the "ink bullies".

Don't get me wrong i understand just how much this means to us all but for me it is time to accept the difficult predicament the club found itself in & move forward with positivity & focus on all the good in this situation.

If it is GH then we can rest assured that Randy & co must have seen him as the best option & therefore, as i trust their judgement, i will trust he is the best guy for the job at this time. So what are the positives?

1. By all accounts his tenure at Liverpool was split into 2 halves. The 1st half before his heart problems was fantasic. He won the treble etc & made good signings mainly. The 2nd half, after his heart problem was poor but was that really any suprise? The guy had serious problemss for goodness sake.

2. He is now over his health problems so surely we would be getting more of an "early period" liverpool manager which would be awesome.

3. His age for me is a bonus as he will need every ounce of experience coming into this particular situation. Also he will be the perfect guy for KM to learn from at close quarters.

4. His style in the way he likes setting up strong foundations for youth development etc would seem to be perfect for us.

5. He's a proven winner which none of the other candidates are. Neither are Moyes or Jol in the Premiership.

6. His style of play would suggest he would be able to utilise the current squad to it's full capacity.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Taken today, fans at the ground seemed pretty happy according to reporters.

[VillaCas]

gutted if true

I thought signing Harewood was a bad day for the club

then I thought Heskey was a new all time low point for the club

seems we are about to go lower still

may as well kept Doug in charge tbh

Who did you want as manager?

i would like to know this too.

I couldn't really give you a preference but I'd show some ambition ..

if we wanted Moyes and thought he was the man then money would talk and he could have been got .. money certainly talked for Barry and Milner didn't it .... all very noble not approaching someone at another club but our board seem happy enough to let Man City come in a knock off our best players so why do we have to play the chivalry card ..

I think we may well have spoken to Moyes but even if we doubled his wages there could be a million reason why he would chose not to come - probably doesn't see Villa as any better than Everton and is hoping that MU come in for him once Fergies finished.

Don't be under any illusions why Milner and Barry left - the money was secondary - they went because they want to win something and chances are much more that they will do that at Man City

If we'd have got Moyes then some idiot would have come on here and said we should have gone for Moriniho or Wenger ?

Houllier is no mug - a very good manager and a very good appointment for villa - we should be grateful if we get him not moaning before he's even taken control of one match

[Phumfeinz]

Please don't.

[Pez1974]

Staggering the amount of negative people on here. Then i really don't think it would matter who was appointed as some would still find some way of turning it into a negative so i guess with Houllier's age, former heart problem & consequential loss of form at Liverpool it merely makes him an easy target for the "ink bullies".

Don't get me wrong i understand just how much this means to us all but for me it is time to accept the difficult predicament the club found itself in & move forward with positivity & focus on all the good in this situation.

If it is GH then we can rest assured that Randy & co must have seen him as the best option & therefore, as i trust their judgement, i will trust he is the best guy for the job at this time. So what are the positives?

1. By all accounts his tenure at Liverpool was split into 2 halves. The 1st half before his heart problems was fantasic. He won the treble etc & made good signings mainly. The 2nd half, after his heart problem was poor but was that really any suprise? The guy had serious problemss for goodness sake.

2. He is now over his health problems so surely we would be getting more of an "early period" liverpool manager which would be awesome.

3. His age for me is a bonus as he will need every ounce of experience coming into this particular situation. Also he will be the perfect guy for KM to learn from at close quarters.

4. His style in the way he likes setting up strong foundations for youth development etc would seem to be perfect for us.

5. He's a proven winner which none of the other candidates are. Neither are Moyes or Jol in the Premiership.

6. His style of play would suggest he would be able to utilise the current squad to it's full capacity.

This seems about right for me

[harris21]

HAHAHAHA!!! (The photo)

[Oaks]

GH Liverpool Top 10 In's & Out's.

Some good sales some bad buys.

All his big buys were shite then.

[C4rvillan]

Staggering the amount of negative people on here. Then i really don't think it would matter who was appointed as some would still find some way of turning it into a negative so i guess with Houllier's age, former heart problem & consequential loss of form at Liverpool it merely makes him an easy target for the "ink bullies".

Don't get me wrong i understand just how much this means to us all but for me it is time to accept the difficult predicament the club found itself in & move forward with positivity & focus on all the good in this situation.

If it is GH then we can rest assured that Randy & co must have seen him as the best option & therefore, as i trust their judgement, i will trust he is the best guy for the job at this time. So what are the positives?

1. By all accounts his tenure at Liverpool was split into 2 halves. The 1st half before his heart problems was fantasic. He won the treble etc & made good signings mainly. The 2nd half, after his heart problem was poor but was that really any suprise? The guy had serious problemss for goodness sake.

2. He is now over his health problems so surely we would be getting more of an "early period" liverpool manager which would be awesome.

3. His age for me is a bonus as he will need every ounce of experience coming into this particular situation. Also he will be the perfect guy for KM to learn from at close quarters.

4. His style in the way he likes setting up strong foundations for youth development etc would seem to be perfect for us.

5. He's a proven winner which none of the other candidates are. Neither are Moyes or Jol in the Premiership.

6. His style of play would suggest he would be able to utilise the current squad to it's full capacity.

^^^This. Hughes spent shit loads at Citeh and won sweet FA. Moyes spent quite a bit of money at Everton and won sweet FA. Jol spent money at Spuds and won sweet FA. Houllier spent money at Plop and won 5 trophies.

I'll reserve judgement before shouting my mouth off.

People say we want a name and he IS a name. People want experience and he HAS experience. People want someone who will buy from foreign markets and he WILL buy from foreign markets. Let's give the guy a chance. He has been more successful in the Prem than our dear old MON and he was supposedly the Messiah.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

GH Liverpool Top 10 In's & Out's.

Some good sales some bad buys.

All his big buys were shite then.

Apart Hamann. Yes, seems so.

Although, weird as it sounds, Emile Heskey was actually pretty good for Liverpool so wasn't a bad buy at all.

How, Cisse, Diouf, Biscan come upto £29.5 million between them God only knows.

[Qwpzxjor1]

Hamman was a cracking buy for them.

Dudek went on to save a winning penalty in a Champions League Final.

Kirkland was a great keeper too but unfortunately turned out to be made of glass. Same as Cisse, who looked a brilliant player before his legs fell off.

There are some buys there that didn't work out, but the quality of his signings aren't that bad.

We won't have to worry about that til at least January anyway. I'm more concerned about Friedel and Warnock, who were completely frozen out by Houllier and I'm sure wouldn't be overkeen to see him as their boss again.