Houllier - released from contract with FFF

[Stockport_Villain]

Strange situation this, not actually being able to manage our team for a few weeks. Would this have happened at any other top six Premiership club, maybe not.

If the manager had left 5 days before the start of the season I would hazard a guess that, yes it would.

[jonno_2004]

Strange situation this, not actually being able to manage our team for a few weeks. Would this have happened at any other top six Premiership club, maybe not.

If they had got Houllier while he was under contract with the FFF then yes, most likely. That's the reason for the delay - it's nothing to do with the club or Houllier being slow.

And yes, I agree with Denis B. All this talk of Houllier's health is ridiculous. Doctors have said he's fine and if he wasn't 100% fit and healthy I doubt he'd be managing. People seem to be waiting for his health to decline just so they can say "I told you so". :?

Very much agree. I can see it now - 'the pressures of the Aston Villa job and the criticism of the fans etc. etc.' Something else for the media to slate the club for.

[dudevillaisnice]

The managers programme notes -

Sorry I cant be with you all this afternoon but with your backing and me on MyP2P I'm sure we can get the right result.....

LOL

[dudevillaisnice]

Defender Stephen Warnock and goalkeeper Brad Friedel played under Houllier at Liverpool, while the Frenchman managed striker John Carew at Lyon.

Warnock and Friedel’s first-team opportunities were limited at Anfield while Houllier allowed Carew to leave Lyon and join Villa.

Houllier said: ‘At Jamie Carragher’s testimonial last weekend, I came across a few players that had left during my time at Liverpool.

‘There was not a problem and there will be no problem here. Stephen Warnock was too young [at Liverpool]. Brad, I got on very well with. Don’t forget, Brad had to leave because we couldn’t renew his work permit. As for John Carew, he is an outstanding talent.’

Houllier was due to meet the Villa players yesterday before flying back home to tie up the loose ends with the French Football Federation after quitting as their technical director.

Caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald will, therefore, take charge for tonight’s league match at Stoke, for which midfielder Stephen Ireland (hamstring) is a doubt.

MacDonald will again be at the helm for next Saturday’s home match with Bolton, although Houllier hopes to attend that game.

Houllier revealed: ‘If all goes to plan the Carling Cup match [against Blackburn on Wednesday week] will be the first game I pick the team for.’

http://tinyurl.com/3yn8og3

[Cracker1234]

Caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald will, therefore, take charge for tonight’s league match at Stoke, for which midfielder Stephen Ireland (hamstring) is a doubt.

He still has hamstring problems?

[YankeeinMadrid]

Houllier was due to meet the Villa players yesterday before flying back home to tie up the loose ends with the French Football Federation after quitting as their technical director.

That is BS. I know for a fact, as of last night, he hadn't met with the players. The day he had his presentation the players had a day off.

This tells me either 1. Crap planning by the bosses at Villa or 2. Houllier lacked the desire or initiative to meet the squad.

[Mr_Dogg]

Houllier was due to meet the Villa players yesterday before flying back home to tie up the loose ends with the French Football Federation after quitting as their technical director.

That is BS. I know for a fact, as of last night, he hadn't met with the players. The day he had his presentation the players had a day off.

This tells me either 1. Crap planning by the bosses at Villa or 2. Houllier lacked the desire or initiative to meet the squad.

Yesterday was Saturday. Didn't they have Friday off?

[YankeeinMadrid]

I meant that unless Houllier met the players today at training, he still hasn't met them yet. I thought Houllier left Friday.

edit: that's confusing. The last I heard, as of Saturday night, Houllier hasn't met the squad.

[Anything11]

Seems like you don't really knows whats going on then.

Moving on.

[legov]

Travel to any of the distant outposts where Fifa or Uefa place their forums about football development, ask any of the elite managers in the world game, and the consensus about the new Aston Villa coach is pretty universal: Gérard Houllier is an admired football man with knowledge and ideas well worth listening to. Ask Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger how highly they rate this particular peer. Consult the educators in poorer countries who feel indebted for the expertise he passes on. You will be hard pressed to find a single bad word. So why has Houllier's return to the sharp end of management been met with a degree more scepticism than enthusiasm?

It is not just in the streets around Villa Park that his appointment has been greeted with ambivalence. Back home, his protracted farewell from his job at the French football federation – with which he has been connected for decades and has performed the role of technical director for the past three years – has also been mixed. While the French are thankful for the valuable work he has done in overseeing the development of the next generation of players, his reputation took a fearful hit-by-association when the Raymond Domenech disaster came to such a damaging head at the World Cup in South Africa.

It has hurt Houllier deeply that he has taken a share of the flak – and the worst of it has been scathing – for the implosion that engulfed the national team over the summer. Even though he had no direct say in team affairs, the public and the media have been unforgiving about his role in keeping Domenech in place far beyond what should have been his sell-by date. It was Houllier who stood up to back Domenech after a dismal showing at Euro 2008. It was Houllier's word that carried enough weight for the federation to keep the lamest of ducks afloat for 2010.

The fact he backtracked once a woeful World Cup qualification campaign got under way, urging the powers that be to bring out the guillotine before the rot became incurable, did not get him off the hook. By then it was apparently too late and on France stumbled until they jumped off a cliff in South Africa. One of Houllier's nicknames in the aftermath of this mess was Pontius Pilate. He was perceived as the man who made the big judgment calls – and didn't call them well at all. "It is something funny," he reflects. "Suppose there was a plane crash and the black box shows the pilot made some mistakes. I was not the pilot. I was not the co-pilot. I was not the steward. I was not the hostess. I was not even a passenger on the plane, but I got blamed."

And this brings us to the crux of the Houllier image in France. On a technical level, he remains a figure to be respected. On a political level, he is seen as having bungled. Houllier is, by nature, a sensitive man, someone who struggles to conceal his emotions, and if there is any good to come out of what has been a painful and unexpected backlash, it is the fact it has pushed him into a new challenge. As he is fond of saying, "a crisis is always an opportunity".

The chance to get the hell out of French football politics has come at just the right time. The sanctity of the training pitch calls. The smell of the grass and the sound of leather boots thumping at footballs cannot come soon enough, and this invigorated 63-year-old intends to throw himself into the challenge at Bodymoor Heath.

After the comparatively sedate desk job and ambassadorial roles that have occupied him over the past few seasons, the obvious concern, with so much to launch into, is whether Houllier's health is robust enough for the physical and mental pressures ahead. He has always claimed an emergency heart operation in 2001 should not preclude him from his calling. "When people told me I had to stop being a manager, I told them I would rather stop breathing than give up football," he said.

At his unveiling as Villa manager in Birmingham, he explained he had no reservations whatsoever. "My last check-up was on August 4 and I was given a clean bill of health," he said. "I needed to make sure my body was ready for the challenge. I am fitter than I was at any stage when I was with Lyon. I am even fitter than when I was at Liverpool. I have regular check-ups and there have been no murmurs or any problems. Touch wood.

"I am still in contact with the same surgeon who did the operation when I was in Liverpool. He was with me to catch up in August. I meet him on a friendly basis as often as is possible."

He concedes he did have to convince his family that this was the right choice. "They are happy I am doing what I like to do. I wanted to be in a club again and with players every day," he says. "The pressure in the Premier League is probably higher. You don't sleep every night because sometimes you come home so late. But my family know I am fitter and healthier for what is maybe my last challenge."

Much of the judgment on his suitability to return to the Premier League has been clouded by his laboured latter days at Liverpool, a spell he concedes was difficult in the aftermath of his illness, but it is worth noting there are a couple of areas of France that have been loth to join in the Houllier bashing. In Lyon, where he won two French titles as recently as 2006 and 2007, and came within a whisker of a Champions League semi-final, and at Paris Saint-Germain, with whom he claimed Ligue 1 in 1986, he is fondly remembered. And not just for success. His teams played stylishly, too. In club football, he has won trophies everywhere he has worked in the past 25 years.

Houllier has another nickname in France – Culbuto. It is a children's toy, a figure with a ball-shaped bottom that always lands upright no matter how hard you throw it or in which direction it falls. Back on his own two managerial feet at Villa Park, Houllier is raring to prove he can stay that way.

I'm starting to worry about Houllier's tendency to, well, do irresponsible things and make irresponsible comments. From these quotes it sounds to me as if Houllier was shirking away from his responsiblity as France technical director, claiming that he was "not the pilot, co-pilot, stewardess" or whatever. I mean surely Domenech was the main man to blame but to claim NO responsibility at all is cowardly on Houllier's part.

Now the interesting thing is that IIRC, a short while ago Houllier also attempted to claim credit for Plop's 05 CL win, even though he wasn't even involved with the club by that time.

Sounds to me that Houllier is a coward. If things go well, he will claim the credit, but if things go to shit he will probably say something like "oh it isn't the manager's fault, it's not like I told Sidwell to miss that open goal"

Just some food for thought. I wouldn't mind all this one bit if Houllier brings us into the top 4 mind, but I am worried.

[HolteExile]

I'm starting to worry about Houllier's tendency to, well, do irresponsible things and make irresponsible comments. From these quotes it sounds to me as if Houllier was shirking away from his responsiblity as France technical director, claiming that he was "not the pilot, co-pilot, stewardess" or whatever. I mean surely Domenech was the main man to blame but to claim NO responsibility at all is cowardly on Houllier's part.

Now the interesting thing is that IIRC, a short while ago Houllier also attempted to claim credit for Plop's 05 CL win, even though he wasn't even involved with the club by that time.

Sounds to me that Houllier is a coward. If things go well, he will claim the credit, but if things go to shit he will probably say something like "oh it isn't the manager's fault, it's not like I told Sidwell to miss that open goal"

Just some food for thought. I wouldn't mind all this one bit if Houllier brings us into the top 4 mind, but I am worried.

That's pretty much where I'm at.

I have concerns that he has some very DOL and latterday MON tendencies to blame anyone and anything but himself. That's my overriding memory from his time at the Redscouse, and it doesn't sound like he's changed all that much.

I also have some pretty major doubts about his ability to stay the course. He seemed to be in wind-down mode, out of the immediate glare of the spotlight and all the pressure associated with a standard managers job.

Lets face it, there weren't many major clubs either in England or abroad beating a path to his door, begging him to manage them in the last few years. Managers like players have a shelf life, and maybe he is close (or has possibly even exceeded) his.

In the interests of balance, his CV at the various club sides he has managed is very impressive, the hope is we can benefit from his knowledge and contacts.

[Ponky]

I meant that unless Houllier met the players today at training, he still hasn't met them yet. I thought Houllier left Friday.

edit: that's confusing. The last I heard, as of Saturday night, Houllier hasn't met the squad.

Downing says they haven't had the pleasure yet

STEWART DOWNING believes Gerard Houllier has all the credentials to be a successful manager at Aston Villa, although he has also acknowledged the work done by Kevin MacDonald, who was overlooked for the role and who will resume caretaker duties against Stoke City tonight, writes Stuart James .

Houllier will not be at the Britannia Stadium tonight as he is yet to come to an agreement with the French Football Federation, where in his role as technical director he has three months’ notice to serve. The Frenchman is yet to meet the Villa players and will have to wait until September 26th to take charge of his first league game at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Downing is confident, however, that, when Houllier does finally arrive, Villa will have a top manager in place. “I’ve not really met him in person so I don’t know how he is but, if you look at his past record as a manager, with what he did at Liverpool obviously and at Lyon, you don’t generally get jobs like that if you’re not very good,” he said.

“There’s no reason that I can think of why he can’t do very well [here]. It’s a great club, great facilities, so everything’s in place for him to do very well.”

[villanesque]

To me Houllier sounds like a guy with a huge ego and I for one am perfectly fine with that. I don't think you can be successful at this level of your professional career and at this type of public hyper scrutinized work without having an inflated ego. In my opinion two traits tend to be found in "winners" at this level. A big ego (hyper confidence in ones own skill and ability) and a big competitive desire (will use anything as an edge or motivation to beat some one else).

Now, having listened to and read far too many Alex Ferguson interviews where he deflects all that ails Man U from his own choices and decisions and puts things squarely on the shoulders of bad officials, the other coaches, the other underhanded tactics of his opponents, the parasite media, and on any and every body else on the planet but himself, I still have a hard time calling Ferguson a coward and an even harder time making him out to be some sort of shady character.

I'm sorry but Houllier has won things. Big things. He's admired by those who are also trying to win the things he has. No amount of fan ambivalence or media shit stirring is going to damper my enthusiasm at having a proven winner at the reigns of Aston Villa.

[legov]

Uh oh that means team selection still up to KMac for the Stoke and Bolton games.

[MrDuck]

Now the interesting thing is that IIRC, a short while ago Houllier also attempted to claim credit for Plop's 05 CL win, even though he wasn't even involved with the club by that time.

Well in fairness I think many people said the same (including the Liverpool players) - Rafa won it with what was essentially Houllier's team.

Bit surprised that Houllier backed Domenech after Euro 2008 though - that's a bit of a worry!

[legov]

Now the interesting thing is that IIRC, a short while ago Houllier also attempted to claim credit for Plop's 05 CL win, even though he wasn't even involved with the club by that time.

Well in fairness I think many people said the same (including the Liverpool players) - Rafa won it with what was essentially Houllier's team.

Bit surprised that Houllier backed Domenech after Euro 2008 though - that's a bit of a worry!

We give Benitez too little credit for the CL win. His signings, Alonso and Garcia, played very integral roles within the team. Whereas Houllier burdened the team with players like Traore and Biscan. I know he signed a few other gems as well, but I think it's a bit OTT to credit Houllier with the CL win.

More food for thought: ""It is ironic that GH's comment actually proved that he is not as good as a manager as RB. Most of the players in 2005 was GH's player, RB used the exact same players to win the Champion League while GH would not even manage to get pass group stage(2002/03). The players were the same, the only difference is that RB is better than GH."

This proves that GH is definitely a very horrible manager. A team that you cannot do well with that wins a champs league after you left them."

Comments from another website.

I still think Houllier is/will be a decent appointment btw, I'm just trying to put some objectivity into the debate instead of putting forth a one-sided view.

[GaztonVilla]

It's very possible that GH is not allowed to meet the players or do anything which might be construed as actively managing the team until he extricates himself from his FFF contract.

[RushdenVillan]

im generally not a fan of big name managers & Houllier is probably the giggest name we have ever had at VP, our history shows that most of our success has come under "nobodys".

i will be giving Houllier every chance & even if the guy makes mistakes i will be happy if he learns from them unlike MOn

[Jez]

Stewart Downing backs Gérard Houllier to succeed at Aston Villa

• Frenchman has impressive record, says midfielder

• Praise for 'ultra-professional' Kevin MacDonald, too

Stuart James

The Guardian,

Monday 13 September 2010

Stewart Downing, right, is looking forward to the arrival of Aston Villa's new manager Gérard Houllier. Photograph: Peter Ford/Action Images

Stewart Downing believes Gérard Houllier has all the credentials to be a successful manager at Aston Villa although he has also acknowledged the work done by Kevin MacDonald, the man who was overlooked for the role and who will resume caretaker duties against Stoke City tonight.

Houllier will not be present at the Britannia Stadium tonight as he is yet to come to an agreement with the French Football Federation, where in his role as technical director he has three months' notice to serve. The Frenchman is yet to meet the Villa players because of the impasse and will have to wait until 26 September to take charge of his first league game at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Downing is confident, however, that, when Houllier does finally arrive, Villa will have a top manager in place. "I've not really met him in person so I don't know how he is but, if you look at his past record as a manager, with what he did at Liverpool obviously and at Lyon, you don't generally get jobs like that if you're not very good," he said.

"There's no reason that I can think of why he can't do very well [here]. He's got a good squad of players to work with. It's a great club, great facilities, so everything's in place for him to do very well. I'm sure he's excited to come and work with the squad because, if he looks at it, he's got some very good players on his hands here."

There is also no shortage of team spirit, according to Downing, who believes that can help Villa to compete with the likes of Manchester City.

"We're in a good position and we've got good games coming up which we think are winnable. We still need to improve because the other teams have strengthened quite a lot over the summer. That doesn't automatically mean they're going to win stuff and finish in those top four places. It's all about building a good team and a good team spirit and we've got it in abundance here."

MacDonald's unexpected return to first-team duties comes after he failed to get the manager's job on a permanent basis and rejected the chancedeclined to become Houllier's assistant. The Scot, who took over as caretaker when Martin O'Neill resigned five days before the start of the season, will go back to his role as reserve team-manager when Houllier comes in. Downing, however, made it clear that the players have appreciated his efforts.

"He's done a very, very good job in the circumstances he was given with the first team. Obviously he's got a lot of respect here. He's brought a lot of young players through – a load who are still here and a load who have left. He's got a good reputation and knowing Kev, hHe'll just get on with his job whether he's dealing with the first team or whether he's going back to the reserves. He's done really well for us up to now. I think he's an ultra-professional."

Clicky

[cheltenham_villa]

Now the interesting thing is that IIRC, a short while ago Houllier also attempted to claim credit for Plop's 05 CL win, even though he wasn't even involved with the club by that time.

Well in fairness I think many people said the same (including the Liverpool players) - Rafa won it with what was essentially Houllier's team.

Bit surprised that Houllier backed Domenech after Euro 2008 though - that's a bit of a worry!

We give Benitez too little credit for the CL win. His signings, Alonso and Garcia, played very integral roles within the team. Whereas Houllier burdened the team with players like Traore and Biscan. I know he signed a few other gems as well, but I think it's a bit OTT to credit Houllier with the CL win.

More food for thought: ""It is ironic that GH's comment actually proved that he is not as good as a manager as RB. Most of the players in 2005 was GH's player, RB used the exact same players to win the Champion League while GH would not even manage to get pass group stage(2002/03). The players were the same, the only difference is that RB is better than GH."

This proves that GH is definitely a very horrible manager. A team that you cannot do well with that wins a champs league after you left them."

Comments from another website.

I still think Houllier is/will be a decent appointment btw, I'm just trying to put some objectivity into the debate instead of putting forth a one-sided view.

i was under the impression 7 of those players were Houlliers? think you'd give him some credit for Gerard as well. You mention Traore and Biscan, i think a little bloke called Hamman had a bit to do with that win as well you know.