Confirmed: Houllier is the new Villa manager

[C4rvillan]

Great film!

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

Wonder how much moolah Houllier (if he does indeed become our new "les gaffér") will get to spend in January/next summer? Like him or not, an appointment of that profile would no doubt require some cash to be made available to tempt him into the hot-seat.

At most clubs this would be the logical thing to do but our performance in the January transfer market is diabolical at best, criminal neglect at worst. Do well in it and force the issue it can really propel a team through the Jan / Feb difficult time. Every player has a price but the damage done by not joining in is incalculable, handy that !

[Richard]

Well I have doubts about Houllier and he would not be my choice. I have extremely strong reservations about Thompson and do not want that man anywhere near Aston Villa, hateful blinkered individual who has not had one good word to say about us in all the time I have seen him comment about football.

Macdonald did a good jo as reserve team manager so happy enough if he retains that position.

I hope that all three are incredibly successful and it becomes the most successful managerial appointment in the history of football because I support Aston Villa and want the club to be successful.

[iancharlie]

i owuld rather he brought in ex villa players as his assistant but PT may be good. would love to see ian taylor or sid cowans there really!

[holtender4life]

Right. No more martin **** jol talk. Houlliera record as a manager shits on anything he has done

[CVByrne]

Davies £10m

Sidwell £5m

Heskey £50,000 per week wages

Downing £12m when we could have had Johnson for £6m

Shorey £4m

If thats not spunking cash then i dont know what is?

Davies was 8mil and still has a career, he has had injuries that hampered him and we'll get 5mil for him easy if we sell him.

Heskey cost us a few mil, yet you quote his wages.

Downing has only had just over half a season, cut him some slack. He was excellent in the West Ham game.

Shorey was a few mil loss. Sidwell would be a few mil too.

So his worst signings are merely a few mil loss each. Nothing major.

Compare to..

Friedel, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Young, Milner, Ashley Young, Petrov & of course swapping Baros for Carew.

All what you'd call success stories. It can't imagine ANY manager could have done a better job than Martin did in the transfer market with a net spend of around 60mil.

Houllier certainly won't do much better. Or ever come close.

[jimbojames]

I think the days are gone where people are just appointed because they have a link with the club they are signing for. what we need are the best, available people for the job.

[Hanky]

of course swapping Baros for Carew.

So was it Houllier who made this happen now or not?

[BG_Villa_Fan]

I hate Phil Thompson with a passion, his name should never be in the same sentence with Aston Villa. Still hope this is not true rocket polisher

[gabbygabbygabbygabbygabby]

Davies £10m

Sidwell £5m

Heskey £50,000 per week wages

Downing £12m when we could have had Johnson for £6m

Shorey £4m

If thats not spunking cash then i dont know what is?

Davies was 8mil and still has a career, he has had injuries that hampered him and we'll get 5mil for him easy if we sell him.

Heskey cost us a few mil, yet you quote his wages.

Downing has only had just over half a season, cut him some slack. He was excellent in the West Ham game.

Shorey was a few mil loss. Sidwell would be a few mil too.

So his worst signings are merely a few mil loss each. Nothing major.

Compare to..

Friedel, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Young, Milner, Ashley Young, Petrov & of course swapping Baros for Carew.

All what you'd call success stories. It can't imagine ANY manager could have done a better job than Martin did in the transfer market with a net spend of around 60mil.

Houllier certainly won't do much better. Or ever come close.

But Houllier will sign foreigner players which is all we need according to many people on here. MON should get more credit for how he built our squad, he was flawed but I think his name will forever be dragged through the mud because he left so close to the start of the season.

[holtender4life]

i really dont see the fixation in carew. He's as lazy as baros is. Carew is unplayable on his day however how many times have we seen this? You dont know the ins and outs of that deal and by the way davies isnt worth 5 million of anybodys money

[VillaCas]

I would have prefered Moyes or Jol but they didn't want to leave their respective clubs

GH is a vastly experienced and successful manager (with a much superior record to MON!) - we are lucky to get him

I disliked Phil Thompson as a player, coach and pundit but accept that he has been hugely successful - three CLs and 7 league titles. I can put my dislike for him aside and hope that he can get Villa to the next phase

An analogy would be that I hate Tim Cahill (a man who has never made a challenge that wasnt a foul) but would be delighted if we signed him

To be honest - I hope MacDonald goes back to managing the kids 'cos he was brilliant at it. Not entirely sure what he would add to first team affairs and would leave a gap to be filled

GH will have my full support until the end of the season, once he's had time to shape the team, ship out the dead wood (Sidwell, Beye, Davies etc), replace players reaching their sell-by (Friedel, Carew) and buy a few first teamers (striker and defensive midfielder please) and squad players

This season is a bit of a write-off - if we do something in one of the cups it would be a bonus. If we finish 6th again GH will be a miracle worker - we need to build for 2011-12 now

[under_the_bridge]

OK, I really can't see what is so great about Jol? Can someone please enlighten me?

[Rob182]

Wonder how much moolah Houllier (if he does indeed become our new les gaffér) will get to spend in January/next summer? Like him or not, an appointment of that profile would no doubt require some cash to be made available to tempt him into the hot-seat.

I got told something yesterday that's apparantly ITK (although it sounds like bullshit to me)..

A mate told me that his mate knows the Dad of someone in the reserve team who told him that if MON had lowered the wage bill then he would have been given money to spend, apparantly in the region of £30m.

(It sounds like BS to me because I don't think we would have needed to splash £30m this window)

[Woodytom]

Wonder how much moolah Houllier (if he does indeed become our new les gaffér) will get to spend in January/next summer? Like him or not, an appointment of that profile would no doubt require some cash to be made available to tempt him into the hot-seat.

I got told something yesterday that's apparantly ITK (although it sounds like bullshit to me)..

A mate told me that his mate knows the Dad of someone in the reserve team who told him that if MON had lowered the wage bill then he would have been given money to spend, apparantly in the region of £30m.

(It sounds like BS to me because I don't think we would have needed to splash £30m this window)

Oh I think we did Rob at least. If the aim was to finish 4th

[Folski]

Alan Mc as a coach would be brilliant

[CVByrne]

of course swapping Baros for Carew.

So was it Houllier who made this happen now or not?

Case in point about who was a better man in the transfer market.

[Hanky]

i really dont see the fixation in carew. He's as lazy as baros is. Carew is unplayable on his day however how many times have we seen this? You dont know the ins and outs of that deal and by the way davies isnt worth 5 million of anybodys money

Baros was swapped with Carew.

Carew has a much better goal record than Baros did for us, and does more in the game. That is why the deal was far better for us IMO.

[wiggyrichard]

Davies £10m

Sidwell £5m

Heskey £50,000 per week wages

Downing £12m when we could have had Johnson for £6m

Shorey £4m

If thats not spunking cash then i dont know what is?

Davies was 8mil and still has a career, he has had injuries that hampered him and we'll get 5mil for him easy if we sell him.

Heskey cost us a few mil, yet you quote his wages.

Downing has only had just over half a season, cut him some slack. He was excellent in the West Ham game.

Shorey was a few mil loss. Sidwell would be a few mil too.

So his worst signings are merely a few mil loss each. Nothing major.

Compare to..

Friedel, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Young, Milner, Ashley Young, Petrov & of course swapping Baros for Carew.

All what you'd call success stories. It can't imagine ANY manager could have done a better job than Martin did in the transfer market with a net spend of around 60mil.

Houllier certainly won't do much better. Or ever come close.

Why are you turning this into some sort of pathetic MON is better than Houllier arguement?

Your making yourself look a little silly by running down the new gaffer before he has even been unvailed!

[VillaCas]

Wonder how much moolah Houllier (if he does indeed become our new les gaffér) will get to spend in January/next summer? Like him or not, an appointment of that profile would no doubt require some cash to be made available to tempt him into the hot-seat.

I got told something yesterday that's apparantly ITK (although it sounds like bullshit to me)..

A mate told me that his mate knows the Dad of someone in the reserve team who told him that if MON had lowered the wage bill then he would have been given money to spend, apparantly in the region of £30m.

(It sounds like BS to me because I don't think we would have needed to splash £30m this window)

I heard exactly the same thing from someone who works at the club - that MON was told he could spend the Milner money only after he had reduced the wage bill by a certain amount - I understand that MON had originally agreed to this but then wanted to buy before he sold - sounds a reasonable explanation of affairs!

TBH I could care less about MON anymore and just want to look forward to life under GH