Houlier on Talksport in a minute and Dion tonight ..

[davevillan]

What is the issue with a player arguing with the ref? He was our captain, they are allowed to discuss things with the referee.

Should he just accept a decision against us? Wouldn't we do the same?

He won us points. And alot of them. And we're no seeing the difference in class between him and N'Zogbia. Those who didn't like Ash must surely now see his class?

Your first point contradicts itself. The captain is someone who the ref should be able to work with. It doesnt give the captain the right to contest and argue with the ref just because he doesnt agree with a decision!!

[bertlambshank]

How many times did he mention Liverpool?

[QBVILLA]

Houllier was fucking useless and by that i'm not suggesting he was in a relationship with McAllister.From the moment he arrived I got the impression that he felt he was too good for Aston Villa and his antics at Anfield followed by the surrender in the FA cup confirmed my fears.Of his spell in charge, well done for signing Bent, that's about it.The theory about the style of play being better is one I can't agree with either as some of the performances I witnessed under Houllier were amongst the worst i've seen in the 20 odd years i've followed the club.

[UsualSuspect]

Houllier was fucking useless and by that i'm not suggesting he was in a relationship with McAllister.From the moment he arrived I got the impression that he felt he was too good for Aston Villa and his antics at Anfield followed by the surrender in the FA cup confirmed my fears.Of his spell in charge, well done for signing Bent, that's about it.The theory about the style of play being better is one I can't agree with either as some of the performances I witnessed under Houllier were amongst the worst i've seen in the 20 odd years i've followed the club.

Have to agree

Watching Him and Mcallister standing on the touchline against Sunderland not having a clue was pitiful

Almost as pitiful as us appointing him in the first place

[eastie]

Huge mistake appointing mcallister who was a failure at leeds and coventry in the role, if phil thompson had come in it mat have been different but although ged tried to improve the style his behaviour at anfield coupled with the team selection at man city was unacceptable-a wasted and dreadful year in many ways.

[Toronto Villa]

The more time that passes, the worse his mistakes look.

It's called hindsight. A more nuanced view might take into account that he tried to have us playing decent football, that he experienced one of the worst injury crisis in living memory and that several players didn't actually spend the pre-season getting into shape. Some of his ideas were good, but his implementation was poor. But to say that Houllier was crap, or a disaster, is biased and one-sided, to say the least, and there is yet little indication that we are better off without him. (People might like to point to our improved defence, but we conceded 12 goals in the last 10 matches of the Houllier/GMac period, which is not much worse than 4 in 5 matches if you factor in the turgid performances and the quality of the opposition so far this season.)

=========================================================

Houllier was a walking talking disaster turning a Top 6 club into relegation fodder at one point with his side kick McDuff (very good coach?) where? This is in a season where only Cit-eh and Albyion really improved on the previous season.
And before those last 10 games? Conceding 1 at home to Wolves and scoring none. Remember that one? Sending a team out to lose v Cit-eh in the Cup. Is that biased?
I will wager with you that we will get more than 49 points this year and not lose as badly in the Cup with that disgraceful approach. Therefore we will be better off with a worse squad. The guy is arrogant beyond belief - he was brought in to qualify for World Cup with France, win the League with Liverpool and consolidate with Villa. Add Abject to the List of adjectives. Failure with a Big F

Not entirely sure what you mean by "at one point". Doesn't that suggest that we didn't remain that way? Didn't we have something like the 5th best PL record after Christmas? Surely that suggests that after a poor/indifferent start we ended the season going in the right direction. In fact aren't we on something like a 12 game (unspectacular I grant you) unbeaten run in the PL? If he was such a failure why was the quality of our football improving, and why didn't the players just throw in the towel and sent us down?

If Houllier's health had stayed together, and we had the money to back him, there would have been a lot of change at the club over the summer. Lots of players would have gone, including Gabby it seems. It doesn't mean that the players and coaches that we would have brought wouldn't have made us stronger given his contacts in the game.

[Shrek]

Well I enjoyed the end of last season alot more than I am the beginning of this season.

Is this because of the players that have left? Or is it because of the manager?

Most likely abit of both, but I'd swap Houllier for Mcleish everyday if he was healthy enough.

[Legion]

I'd swap Houllier for Mcleish everyday if he was healthy enough.

So would I.

[ozzjim]

Ditto. Houllier had at least got a plan and some sort of footballing ideology.

[Eigentor]

Ditto. Houllier had at least got a plan and some sort of footballing ideology.

Agreed. I'm not sure if either Houllier or McLeish are within the upper echelons of football managers, but allthough his implementation was poor at least Houllier seemed to have an idea of what he was trying to do. So far I'm not sure if that is the case with McLeish, though I hope he proves me wrong.

[Steve R]

Ditto. Houllier had at least got a plan and some sort of footballing ideology.

Agreed. I'm not sure if either Houllier or McLeish are within the upper echelons of football managers, but allthough his implementation was poor at least Houllier seemed to have an idea of what he was trying to do. So far I'm not sure if that is the case with McLeish, though I hope he proves me wrong.

Couldn't agree more.

My hope is that the McLeish appointment reflects nothing more than a 'batten down the hatches' move by the board until the club's (not to mention Lerner's) finances stabilise.

We tried, failed and (I hope) are re-grouping for a different approach.

As a complete aside, I wonder if David Dein fancies a return to involvement in club football.

I am sure Paul Faulkner is a very competent person. All the same, the apparent lack of football knowledge at executive level is probably a bigger issue to us right now than who is/was a crap manager and not worthy of the title.

[adamski villa]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

this

[jonzy85]

The more time that passes, the worse his mistakes look.

It's called hindsight. A more nuanced view might take into account that he tried to have us playing decent football, that he experienced one of the worst injury crisis in living memory and that several players didn't actually spend the pre-season getting into shape. Some of his ideas were good, but his implementation was poor. But to say that Houllier was crap, or a disaster, is biased and one-sided, to say the least, and there is yet little indication that we are better off without him. (People might like to point to our improved defence, but we conceded 12 goals in the last 10 matches of the Houllier/GMac period, which is not much worse than 4 in 5 matches if you factor in the turgid performances and the quality of the opposition so far this season.)

=========================================================

Houllier was a walking talking disaster turning a Top 6 club into relegation fodder at one point with his side kick McDuff (very good coach?) where? This is in a season where only Cit-eh and Albyion really improved on the previous season.
And before those last 10 games? Conceding 1 at home to Wolves and scoring none. Remember that one? Sending a team out to lose v Cit-eh in the Cup. Is that biased?
I will wager with you that we will get more than 49 points this year and not lose as badly in the Cup with that disgraceful approach. Therefore we will be better off with a worse squad. The guy is arrogant beyond belief - he was brought in to qualify for World Cup with France, win the League with Liverpool and consolidate with Villa. Add Abject to the List of adjectives. Failure with a Big F

Couldnt agree more Rob Bridge.

Claiming that saying Houllier was a disaster in hidsight is b******s! I and many others knew he would be an awful appointment from the get go. It just got worse and worse, like a very slow car crash.

I am happier having McLeish (who I am not happy with). At least he has restored some of the qualities we had under MON and belief in a lot of the players. Has he got the imagination to take it any further? I doubt it. But I dont think we will be worrying about relegation this year as long as Bent gets scoring and stays fit and Gabby continues his resurgence.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The more time that passes, the worse his mistakes look.

It's called hindsight. A more nuanced view might take into account that he tried to have us playing decent football, that he experienced one of the worst injury crisis in living memory and that several players didn't actually spend the pre-season getting into shape. Some of his ideas were good, but his implementation was poor. But to say that Houllier was crap, or a disaster, is biased and one-sided, to say the least, and there is yet little indication that we are better off without him. (People might like to point to our improved defence, but we conceded 12 goals in the last 10 matches of the Houllier/GMac period, which is not much worse than 4 in 5 matches if you factor in the turgid performances and the quality of the opposition so far this season.)

=========================================================

Houllier was a walking talking disaster turning a Top 6 club into relegation fodder at one point with his side kick McDuff (very good coach?) where? This is in a season where only Cit-eh and Albyion really improved on the previous season.
And before those last 10 games? Conceding 1 at home to Wolves and scoring none. Remember that one? Sending a team out to lose v Cit-eh in the Cup. Is that biased?
I will wager with you that we will get more than 49 points this year and not lose as badly in the Cup with that disgraceful approach. Therefore we will be better off with a worse squad. The guy is arrogant beyond belief - he was brought in to qualify for World Cup with France, win the League with Liverpool and consolidate with Villa. Add Abject to the List of adjectives. Failure with a Big F

Couldnt agree more Rob Bridge.

Claiming that saying Houllier was a disaster in hidsight is b******s! I and many others knew he would be an awful appointment from the get go. It just got worse and worse, like a very slow car crash.

I am happier having McLeish (who I am not happy with). At least he has restored some of the qualities we had under MON and belief in a lot of the players.

Funny you should mention MON, as Houllier achieved just one less point at Villa Park than MON did in what many refer to as his 'bestest season', despite coming in as a new manager, missing out on the summer transfer windsow, the player fall-outs and injury crisis.

As for Ashley Young, he was a loose cannon for us last season, a shadow of the player he'd previously been. Ferguson has brought some discipline to his game and when combined with the 100% effort and talent he has, he's back to being a great player.

[Steve R]

How was Houllier a disaster ? We didn't get relegated, the club is still in business.

There were a number of very poor games, some duff decisions etc. etc. But from what I have seen so far this season I won't be putting too much money on us beating Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal as well as getting by far the better of a draw with ManU. It wasn't all bad by a long chalk.

We need a fair few more games under our belt under McLeish before it's time to compare Houllier's brief stint with what we have now.