General Krulak pt 4 - Q & A (No transfer Questions)

[AshVilla]

General

Not impressed with the managerial statement whatsoever

How were his comments about liverpool meant to be "Humorous" im sure the fans who sat in the freezing cold watching him smile wave and blow kisses to the liverpool fans and then crack a joke like that found it hilarious!!!!!

I cannot believe how my beloved club has became such a circus i hope santa gets us a new manager for christmas.

[AstonMartin82]

General, the message from Houllier on the villa website is a poor attempt to explain the inexplicable. Humourous comments after a 3-0 spanking? For me I very much doubt they were humourous... he's made no secret of his lasting desires of Liverpool. Even in his very first press conference he was talking about this game being the big one for him and how much he was looking forward to it. At the time it struck a chord with me that it was a very odd thing to say, and now it strikes an even bigger chord.

So, the "humourous" comments he can find a poor excuse for. What excuse does he have for touching the Liverpool badge? What excuse does he have for appaulding the Liverpool fans whilst ignoring his own? No excuse at all... not even a poor one else he would of put it in his message on the site.

I was massively underwhelmed when you announced his appointment and there has been very little to get me going again since... possibly the performance against Man Utd has been the only positive hidden amoungst many negatives. If I were to be cynical perhaps he got the boys motivated for the Man Utd game again purely for his love of Liverpool? For this is the only game in which we have showed anykind of collective, motivated performance under his tenure.

So, humourous comments? I think not. He has belittled our club to such an extent that we will for the next 5 - 10 years be the laughing stock of all Liverpool fans. Us Villa fans have a great old laugh when we sold Ridgewell to Birmingham only for him to score an own goal for us... Agent Ridgewell. They will never live that down. We have now been done in the same way. Agent Houllier... and we will never live that down.

This situation is dire. Truly dire, and not just for the pathetic football that is being shown on the pitch. It is now so much more than that.

[jack_bauer87]

General, I do wonder whose words they actually are in the managerial message to the fans? I suspect it's just PR spin by the club.

[ONO]

If this joke is kept on after this fiasco I'll be changing my Christmas box from three trips to the Villa to getting a new laptop. Maybe when my birthday comes round he'll be out on his ear.

[UTVPK]

General,

I respect that the club has recognised the issue and tried to address it, but GH really should have apoligised. Its like someone saying "Im sorry if you feel that way" which basically, is not an apology at all.

'' if the comments I made in the immediate aftermath of our defeat at liverpool have been misconstructed - comments that were intended to be humorous by the way, let me put them into context..."

Well, there is no IF and no MISCONSTRUCTED COMMENTS and for sure, they were NOT HUMOUROUS so there is no need for putting them into CONTEXT.

Everyone else away from Villa may find it funny, but not by kind of comedy.

The fact of the matter is, this is way short of an apology. the only person who made mistakes and is mistaken is GH. All that statement has done is try and paper the cracks, but in fact, points the finger back at us, as taking things out of CONTEXT.

General, someone at the club needs to sort this out. The damage is done. Glue it back together, but it will never be the same.

[Richard]

General if the club really wanted to appoint a diehard Liverpool fan who had no idea how to motivate a bunch of professional players, or pick a team / tactics correctly and still wanted to save money, then I know for a fact my next door neighbour would have done the job for half the wages Houllier is on.

[VillaAndLoyal]

General

As someone who works in the media I find it horrific that the PR department couldn't come out with anything better than that. They did have a whole day after all.

The fans will not forget this. They will not forget that you had every chance to address the matter today but have chosen to back a manager who has no respect for the football club he is employed by.

Expect the rumblings of discontent to gather pace now thanks to your decision.

V&L

[markavfc40]

General,

Before the inevitable PR machine rolls in to action please tell the manager not to bother apologising or praising our supporters. Its too late. He had the opportunity last night but I and many others had to stand, freezing our nuts off and watch him clapping and waving in front of the Liverpool fans whilst failing to acknowledge us. He showed total contempt for us. No amount of spin is going to put that right.

Mark

I posted the above at 4.30pm. Didn't take much longer for the PR machine to roll up. Poor effort though General by Houllier if it was him that wrote those hollow words. Didn't explain why he didn't acknowledge the Villa fans last night. Presume it just slipped his mind as he was busy applauding/waving to the Liverpool fans after a 3-0 defeat. Proud moment that for us Villa fans freezing our nuts off. Also General is he going to explain touching the This is Anfield Sign before entering the pitch last night? Or will that be in tomorrows PR instalment. He is a pathetic excuse for a man and acted like an excited school boy last night.

He isn't fit to manage this great club. The club I love.

[blandy]

Posters are asked to remain civil in your posts. Abuse and insults directed towards anyone are not acceptable. Additionally, we have had about 10 pages of comment re M.Houllier. In order to give the General a chance to get to new topics, questions or comments, please do not just repeat what has already been said. 10 odd pages is enough for the General to gauge the feelings re the manager's actions and performances, good or bad. Thank you

[Villarocker]

Hi General,

I just wanted to point out to you these statistics for last season's equivalent of last night's fixture:

Monday, 24 August 2009

Liverpool 1-3 Aston Villa FT

(HT 0-2)

Liverpool = Torres 72

A Villa = Lucas (og) 34, Davies 45+2, A Young (pen) 75

Liverpool Team

25 Reina (yellow card)

02 G Johnson

22 Insua

23 Carragher

37 Skrtel (yellow card)

08 Gerrard

15 Benayoun (Babel 75)

20 Mascherano

21 Lucas (Voronin 66)

09 Torres (yellow card)

18 Kuyt

Substitutes

01 Cavalieri, 34 Kelly, 38 Dossena, 40 Ayala, 11 Riera, 10 Voronin, 19 Babel

Aston Villa Team

01 Friedel

15 Davies

21 Shorey

23 Beye

24 Cuellar

04 Sidwell

07 A Young (yellow card) (Heskey 80)

08 Milner

19 Petrov

20 Reo-Coker (yellow card)

11 Agbonlahor

Substitutes

22 Guzan, 12 Albrighton, 16 Delph, 26 Gardner, 45 Lowry, 14 Delfouneso, 18 Heskey

I know that we have injuries General but nobody, and I mean nobody, can tell me that our injuries last night hurt us more than Liverpool's injuries hurt them. They had lost the core of their team from back to front and still outplayed us. I say outplay because possession means nothing if you can't even muster more than one shot worthy of mention!

Look at their team from last season's fixture General. They had a full strength side out and we beat them well. We beat them with our second string defence! Shorey was an outcast and Beye was nothing more than 3rd choice for right back. Cuellar and Davies were back-up centre back’s. Yet, that team went to Anfield and played their socks off and came away with a well deserved victory. Last night's side would only really have been improved by Ashley Young, Petrov and maybe NRC being in the side. Let's suppose that those 3 were playing and Liverpool had their main 3 of Gerrard, Torres and Carragher playing. What would the score have been then? I believe it could have been a lot more than a 3 goal deficit .

Something is clearly not right and it is more than just injuries. The defenders were brilliant last season yet this season they look like rabbits caught in the headlights every time the ball goes near them. They are obviously uncomfortable with having to try to play their way out of trouble. That doesn't make them bad defenders. It just means they are being asked to do something they are neither familiar or comfortable with.

I have a few words of caution for the club General. Martin O’Neil assembled a team of hard working players. He bought players to do a job and for him they did it well. We just needed extra bodies in to help them out. It seems to me that these players will only be able to play to the best of their ability when they have a MON type of manager in charge of them. By that I mean someone who will stand on the touchline and bellow out orders for 90+ minutes to keep the players on their toes.

If Randy sticks by Gerard Houllier he may well have to spend as much again as he gave to MON because the current players are not going to become someone they aren’t and they will need replacing with players who are comfortable with playing their way out of trouble. In fact, maybe GH will need more money than MON because the better the quality of player you buy, the more you pay. The question Randy will have to ask himself is, do I bankroll such a change in playing personnel or do I find another management team that can manage this type of player and who won't need as much to spend on improving the team? Personally, I would be a nervous wreck giving GH that amount of money to spend with his previous transfer dealing history.

I have stood by GH throughout his difficult start and I still would have preferred to see him manage a full strength Villa side. The trouble is General, he has lost my respect for him. You tell us that he sees what we see. You also said that he had a great knowledge of our game and had kept up to date with the English Premier League whilst working for the French FA. Well, anyone with a good knowledge of our game would surely know that playing Stephen Ireland in the centre of a four man midfield would be leaving your team wide open. Ireland is an attacking midfielder General. He has never really shown an ability for getting stuck in and doing a defensive job. He needs to be playing in a five man midfield where he can roam forward and get in on the action in the opposing third. Steven Warnock has previously played centre midfield for Blackburn so why not put him into that position and play Luke Young at left back for a short period until we get some much needed bite back. Cuellar can fill in at right back. Of course, we wouldn’t have to ask the latter pair to play out of position if we hadn’t parted company with THREE left backs in the summer! I did warn that this would come back to haunt us.

Finally - and this is the main reason for me losing respect for GH – I watched the game on TV last night and couldn’t believe (well, actually I could!) how fantastic our support was, even when we were three down and looking weary. The fans were out-singing the famous Kop on their home soil. The fans had nothing to cheer on a freezing Monday night and yet they made more noise than the supposed famous Liverpool supporters. The Villa faithful chanted Houllier’s name loud and proud. The touching of the badge on his way out was a bit rude I thought but then, on live TV, he was asked what he thought of the Liverpool fans' reaction to him. To which he replied “They were great. The banner was great too”. Would it really have hurt him to say “The Liverpool fans gave me a great return. However, I have to say that the Villa fans were great tonight. We didn’t give them a lot to sing about but their support was fantastic”. I mean seriously General, is it that difficult to show his own fans some respect? Martin O’Neil had many faults but he always thanked the fans for their support, even after they had occasionally booed his team, which he took offence at, he still praised the support for the team! I have previously found Houllier’s comments about Liverpool disrespectful to us because it is Aston Villa that he now manages – not Liverpool FC. But, I put up with them because I thought that they would soon die down. Last night was the final straw for me General. Those Villa fans were amazing and to be ignored by their own manager after a woeful performance like that is nothing short of disgraceful.

Personally, I can’t see GH turning things around because we don’t look to have the fight needed in us under his management. Right now, I could only see us staying up because the others around us won’t get enough points to avoid being relegated. If it does come down to a dogfight, I worry for us! I know that sounds like I am panicking but the players coming back aren't all going to be able to play. We have a few players who have no need to bust a gut for us because they will soon be playing elsewhere and the injured players are going to need time to get back to full match fitness anyway. Ok we might buy new players in January but you have warned us yourself many times about the type of quality that becomes available at that time of year. We also have to remember another two things. 1) Any new signings will need time to adjust and settle in to their new surroundings (time we may not be able to afford). 2) Houllier's transfer dealings of the past have left a lot to be desired so it's not even a certainty that he will bring in the quality needed to turn things around.

It is up to the club whether or not they keep Gerard Houllier. The trouble is General, the decision to keep him might lead the fans to turn their vitriol towards the board instead. So here is my question to you General, well, more a plea for you to ask yourself a question actually. Please ask yourself if you can genuinely see GH getting the turnaround needed to save our season. As a fan General, ask yourself that question and answer it honestly. I don't mean on an open forum either. I know that it wouldn't be right for you to come on here and berate our manager in public and I certainly wouldn't want to see that from you. Whatever the board decides is going to be very important for the future of AVFC. I just hope it makes the right decision for the club.

Up The Villa!!!!

[Brumstopdogs]

General.

Close to 300 fans have voted on their opinion as to whether they want Houllier to stay or not:

http://www.villatalk.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=65763

Yes 28%

No 61%

Don't Care 9%

There you have it, of the people who voted, over twice as many people want Houllier out than those who don't.

It's clear General the Holte have turned. We've seen enough and we've heard enough to see Houllier is not the right man for this great club.

This is the first season in almost 30 years where I haven't been to a game and I won't while someone so inappropriate "leads" our club (I use the word leads very loosely because at present the only thing he is doing is leading us downwards). Please give us our club back.

There is no way back for Houllier. The question is do you have what it take to act on behalf of the MAJORITY of the fans?

[Ulver]

General

With respect (and i'm sure you don't need telling) the post above is a load of baloney. 0.1% of our fan base say they want him out because they've still got the arse after yesterday

The rest of us will be fully backing the side and staff until we have no reason to

UTV

[smetrov]

General,

OK some of the comments are OTT - But GH has such a massive mountain to climb now, he really has dug his own grave. I am sure Randy and co don't like sacking managers especially after only 14 games in charges - its not a nice thing to do. I do believe however that the interests of Aston Villa FC remain paramount and above those of hurting the feelings of GH.

He has at his disposal a squad of highly paid players who for last few seasons we feared by the vast majority of the premiership - this has in a few short weeks been reduced to shambles to a team - ok there have been injuries - but he still has more talent at his disposal than most premier league managers...I realise you would like to give him time.....but that time is only taking us one place. He needs depart within the next week.

[beasley14]

General i don't think i have made a negative comment about our club to you before but yesterday was one of the worst moments in my history of supporting this club. It is simply not acceptable for our manager to behave like that and make the comments he did. Its so disrespectful its almost laughable (i know a lot of clubs will be laughing). I was willing to give him time and have everyone back before i judged him but not only was the performance a joke the whole not seeming to be bothered about he club is too much to take. Its been said by people who know the players that they don't respect GH and that they don't really want to play for him. Its shows to be honest, did you realise we haven't gained a point from any game we have gone behind in.

I wasn't Martins biggest fan but at least the team had fight, you knew you could come back from going behaind and he always respected the fans and the clubs history. I know it was hard to sort all this out so close to the season but we have made a mistake, GH won't repair that relationship with a fair amount of our supports no matter how many games we win. I think for the longer term (he is 63 with a history of heart problems anyway) we should be looking to change this around. My 1st choice and many others including yours if rumours are to be believed is now available for free, as is his assitant whilst at Spurs by some crazy coincidence, so if the board feel that way, now is exactly the right time to do it, even if it seems a bit harsh.

[webby1982]

General,

Having read the statement by GH on the website, I have to say that I'm further insensed by the whole situation. It shows that clearly the manager and I take it the media person have not looked at boards like this to see what the issues are and trying to address them. To put them down to a "humerous" comment after such an appalling show, has wound me up more.

There is no apology for his actions and have to say that in my personal opinion, he has lost a majority of fans. Only last week I was calling on everyone to give him time but his actions on Monday have totally changed my opinion. I echo my thoughts of yesterday in that he should be asked to resign. I fear that the fans have turned and its not normally a pretty sight at Villa Park.

[Oaks]

Hi General;

Its been over 24 hours now since it all kicked off. I have mellowed on my thoughts. I still think Gerard was bang out of order the way he conducted himself. I know he wont get the sack, it would be very stupid to do so. But its quite clear he has a lot of work to win a huge majority of the fans back. And i dont mean fans voting on website polls, i mean pretty much every Villa fan is more upset the way he conducted himself after the result than the result itself.

Someone said even if we went 15 game unbeaten i wouldn't forgive him, well we all know thats rubbish, us football fans are a fickle bunch. But he has a lot of work to do to bridge the gap between the supporters. 2 wins in 11 league games is awful, but i think on the whole us Villa fans have been pretty patient with Mr Houllier, but the last 4 games have been nothing less that diabolical.

These next 2 games are massive in context to our season, because we are in a relegation battle, the table doesn't lie. Anything less than 4 points i really do think Gerard's position could become untenable.

[b6bloke]

General, what a pathetic and unapologetic statement that was, he would have been better off saying nothing

[jacketspuds]

Hi General, please can you explain to me how not acknowledging your own fans but going out of your way to please the opposition fans, regardless of one's histroy with them, is a joke? I wasn't laughing.

[shambles]

Hi General, please can you explain to me how not acknowledging your own fans but going out of your way to please the opposition fans, regardless of one's histroy with them, is a joke? I wasn't laughing.

I didn't find it funny either. I'm sure the few thousand Villa fans who travelled the 200 odd mile round trip up an icy M6 and braved freezing conditions to be insulted and humiliated by the manager, and disgusted by the teams performance, AND had to pay for the privelidge didn't find it funny either. I've never felt so ashamed to be a Villa fan, and that includes Graham Taylors 2nd term in charge. At least he had the bottle to admit the club was going nowhere, the humility to apologise to the fans after the Small Heath debacle(s), and the dignity to resign.

[thegiddygambler]

GH is now living on borrowed time. I was all for backing him but something has snapped. Too many incorrect decisions are being made.

I have no doubt we'd have beaten Blues at home with a 4-4-2, the line up was farcical. The way he behaved on Monday was disgusting, a lot of people haven't got two half pennys to rub together at the moment yet multi-millionaire GH chooses to ignore them and the financial sacrifice they've made to worship at the kop end. DISGUSTING!