Phil Thompson: Why I turned down the chance to work with GH.

[PaulTheVillan]

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Phil Thompson has admitted that he did not join Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa due to family reasons.

The television pundit was widely tipped to reunite with the Frenchman at Villa, having previously been his deputy during their days at Liverpool. Houllier has since been announced as Martin O'Neill's successor, after Kevin MacDonald's short reign as the caretaker boss.

But the 56-year-old believes he would have cheated the club, the manager, and the fans if he had half-heartedly agreed to take up the offer become the assistant manager at the Birmingham-based club.

"Sometimes in life you get presented with an opportunity that is too good to be true but, ultimately, has to be turned down," Thompson said in a column for the Liverpool Daily Post.

"Had circumstances been different, I would have been delighted to accept the chance to join Gerard Houllier and work with him and Patrice Bergues once again at Aston Villa.

"But I had to weigh up the pros and cons and while it was both flattering to be asked, not to mention hugely enticing, I really had no other choice but to turn the offer down.

"When you work with Gerard, you are signing up to 12 hour days; on top of that, you have to go to reserve games, scout players and also head off to check up on forthcoming opponents – in other words, you have to be totally committed.

"Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to throw myself at such a challenge again but, at the same time, I do not want to uproot my wife and my two boys; I’m not someone who could live away from them through the week."

A portion of the club's fans appeared to be unhappy with the choice of manager, as Villa board member Charles Krulak came out in defence of the Frenchman recently.

However, Thompson insists that the fans the ex-Liverpool boss is the right man for the job.

"He has got a wealth of knowledge, knows the game inside out and it will be fantastic occasion when Liverpool tackle Villa at Anfield in the first weekend of December," Thompson said.

"It would have been great to strike up the partnership we had at Anfield and to be involved in the day-to-day running of football club again really did turn my head.

"But there were other things to consider and my family comes first; to take on such a job, everything had to be right and that wasn’t the case."

[LeeB]

Fair enough.

[BannedUserIAT]

Good to hear that Houllier has high standards. MoN never seemed to be that demanding of his backroom staff.
Seemed. I could be wrong.

He's clearly done with the long hours, the travel and time away from family. Fair enough if these are the real reasons. And he seems genuine enough.

[pauliewalnuts]

Can't really argue with that

[Salsa Party Animal]

it would be interesting to see the staff working week diary with Gerard and Martin O'Neill to see how much different.

[Guy M]

Nothing to do with the fact that he'd probably be paid the same amount as he gets for his cushy gig on Soccer Saturday as their resident Scouser, then?

Either way, I'm glad he isn't coming to us if he's not committed to it and at least appreciate his semi-honesty.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Fair play to him for his honesty.

But can we now get back to hating the big-nosed, red-tinted, nonsense-spouting, scouse arsehole please?

[curiousorange]

No problems with that at all.

[darren woolley]

I like his honesty.

[cdward]

He seems to have a redscouse form of tourettes, where he can't complete an interview without mentioning his beloved Liverpool football club. I couldn't see him wanting any other team to win at Anfield, glad he decided against the job.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Fair enough, Im not exactly bothered though

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Fair enough Thommo, a good job at Sky and the ability to smoke in the shower.
What more could a man want?

[Small Rodent]

He seems to have a redscouse form of tourettes, where he can't complete an interview without mentioning his beloved Liverpool football club.

It's lifted from a Liverpool paper, so that's possibly why they are mentioned.

[pmk1981]

looks like bergues is no2 then

[Matt C]

Can't argue with any of that. If he doesn't feel he can't fully commit himself to it then he's done the right thing to say non.