The replacement for MON...?

[john e]

The Mirror are about as reliable as a DOL team in Doncaster. I just cannot believe they will try a patch work management team. I cannot see anything beyond Houllier manager and K Mac coach. Staunton at best a coach along with K Mac. But I doubt that he will be.

as someone who has taken the daily Mirror for the last 30 years, i fully concur with this

[atomicjam]

The Mirror are about as reliable as a DOL team in Doncaster. I just cannot believe they will try a patch work management team. I cannot see anything beyond Houllier manager and K Mac coach. Staunton at best a coach along with K Mac. But I doubt that he will be.

as someone who has taken the daily Mirror for the last 30 years, i fully concur with this

It was the Labour voting paper from my dad handed down but its ability to follow internet gossip as a source of knowledge of football has stopped the tradition and no longer do I buy that rag. The 3am girls or whatever they are called did not help either.

[pmk1981]

I'm sweating like a gerbil in a gay bar

ha ha that line really tickled me, LOL  gonna use that one, i have been using " sweating like a chior boy in a vestry" line

[MattW]

I reckon Randy is trying to introduce something similar to his NFL team Cleveland Browns

Mike Holmgren (President and overall boss of team (Former Head Coach))
Eric Mangini (Head Coach)

to Villa

with possibly Gerald as DOF and MacDonald as Head Coach.

Independent reckons Houllier will be running the show himself:

Gerard Houllier would not be interested in a director of football role at Aston Villa and neither are the club intending to implement a two-tier style of management that would incorporate such a role.

After the first round of interviews, Houllier has been given indications that he is the leading contender. For his part, the Frenchman wants the traditional manager's role that was his at Liverpool after his brief job-share with Roy Evans ended in 1998 and he was left to lead the club alone until his departure six years ago.

Houllier, who turned 63 yesterday, has assured the Villa chairman, Randy Lerner, and chief executive Paul Faulkner that his health is not an issue. He suffered a dissection of the aorta – a heart condition – in 2001, from which he made a full recovery. He still returns to Liverpool every year for a check up in the hospital that treated him.

Houllier has been technical director at the French football federation (FFF) for the past three years after leaving Lyons in 2007.

The Villa hierarchy would prefer it if he did not bring with him a large coterie of staff but that has never been his way, even at Liverpool. He is regarded by Villa as a safe pair of hands who could guide the club through the difficult post-Martin O'Neill era.

It is the intention of Lerner to have a new manager in place by the end of the international break in time for the game against Stoke on 13 September. It is not thought that there is a substantial compensation deal to be done with the FFF for his services. Lerner and Faulkner went to meet Houllier after his interest in the job had been put forward to them.

Houllier won two titles with Lyons, who were already the dominant side in French football when he took over. He has never given up hope that he would get another chance in English football and was briefly considered as a possible candidate by Newcastle after they sacked Sam Allardyce in 2008.

The process by which Lerner and Faulkner have vetted candidates has been described by sources as "thorough". They have gone into the detail on the background of all the candidates, which have included Sven-Goran Eriksson and Alan Curbishley. The caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald has also been interviewed. It is Houllier who currently stands out the most.

It is thought that he would be offered the standard one-year rolling contract for managers of his age.

Before he moved to Liverpool, whom he led to a Uefa Cup, FA Cup and League Cup treble in 2001, he also enjoyed title success with Paris St Germain and spent a decade overseeing the development of French football.
Tom Heckert (General manager responsible for recruitment of players and scouting)

[TheSandman]

His current job is director of the French Football Federation? Aren't they in a pretty bad state?

[john e]

The Mirror are about as reliable as a DOL team in Doncaster. I just cannot believe they will try a patch work management team. I cannot see anything beyond Houllier manager and K Mac coach. Staunton at best a coach along with K Mac. But I doubt that he will be.

as someone who has taken the daily Mirror for the last 30 years, i fully concur with this

It was the Labour voting paper from my dad handed down but its ability to follow internet gossip as a source of knowledge of football has stopped the tradition and no longer do I buy that rag. The 3am girls or whatever they are called did not help either.

it certainly went down hill after Piers Morgan left,
and no i'm not joking

[atomicjam]

The Mirror are about as reliable as a DOL team in Doncaster. I just cannot believe they will try a patch work management team. I cannot see anything beyond Houllier manager and K Mac coach. Staunton at best a coach along with K Mac. But I doubt that he will be.

as someone who has taken the daily Mirror for the last 30 years, i fully concur with this

It was the Labour voting paper from my dad handed down but its ability to follow internet gossip as a source of knowledge of football has stopped the tradition and no longer do I buy that rag. The 3am girls or whatever they are called did not help either.

it certainly went down hill after Piers Morgan left,
and no i'm not joking

I concur, it has got worse year upon year for a long many years. And now it just tries to give gossip as fact but does not have the Murdoch millions to make up real juicy stuff that is bullshit. Murdoch can pay the court fees, Trinity Group need to be a bit more careful with their money. And they lost their reason for being when Labour turned into new Labour. Back on topic- it seems clear Houllier and K Mac are the men, its just in what order?

[Clampy]

I  think houllier should have the freedom to choose his own coaching staff I'd offered the job- it never really works when a manager has his coach imposed on him and I hope that would not be the case in this instance .

Except he worked happily with Phil Thompson.

East is right, it rarely works. 

Did'nt Houiller spend a lot of time in hospital and leave Phil Thompson in charge at one point?

[old man villa fan]

That was hard work reading through all the posts since I logged on late Thursday night.

Has anybody got a clue what is going on.  We, the supporters haven't got a clue so why would the press know any better.

Does anybody actually know for a fact who is deliberating over the appointment of the manager.  Is it just RAL and PF or is somebody else involved.  We have been told that there are advisors but did their involvement stop after initial suggestions/recommendations.  If it is only RAL and PF, who is leaking all this information to the press.   If it is just the two of them, can you honestly see either of them talking to the press (other than the conspiracists who think they are dropping out hints to 'test the water').  So, where are the press getting all the information from or are they just making it up as they go along.  It seems quite funny that every day we go on without an announcement another name comes up - Donadoni yesterday, who tomorrow.

Are interviews (in the usual context) being carried out as suggested in the press.  If so, I haven't seen anything to say where they are being carried out.  It is a small world and I am sure somebody would have found out by now and been able to report as fact who has been to see RAL.  My opinion, I stopped believing anything in the press as being correct a long time ago.  The reporters have a job to write a story to sell a newspaper, the jazzier the better.  So how do they know how many have been interviewed and more to the point, who have been discounted.

Is it just me or do others think that we are just being fed crap by the media.  People then take this and post it on here as though it was true and give opinions that end mostly in a negative view of RAL for 'not pulling his finger out'.  Just follow the trail of a 'supposed' new candidate for the job from when he first gets mentioned in the media, through to when it hits the websites, through the pages and pages of comments that degenerate into he is sh** and finally RAL hasn't got a clue.  It is so predictable.

Some people are so blinkered that they think the task of appointing a manager is so easy.  First of all, you have to identify the task.  As I see it, we are not just looking for a manager but a whole football management structure.  MON walked out with his whole team and as many believe (me included) a very limited scouting network.  I think Randy is trying to put in place an entire structure for the management of the footballing activities at the club in one fell swoop, something that may not have been done before at any club.  The alternative is to appoint a manager in the traditional sense and let him build the structure.  I think that Randy has seen first hand the flaw in this type of system.  Talking to prospective managers and talking this through with them to get their views and how they would fit in with it would take time and would certainly rule out many candidates.  I think Randy wants PF's role in the club to be just financial.

Randy has invested a fortune in our club and sees it as a long term venture.  We are at a point in time when he can get the infrastructure right for the future so that the club can build year on year for a sustainable future.  My opinion is that if it takes another month to get it right, so be it.  I have been a supporter for 43 years and seen us win most things (except the bl**** FA Cup!) but it has been a long time since we last won something.  So, if it takes a little longer but we have a better chance, I say, go for it.

There are many people in the game that reckon that Kevin MacDonald is an excellent coach and, if so, we need to build the rest of the infrastructure around him.  The manager, therefore, has to be somebody that is willing to work in this type of system.  If a manager comes along and says he has a far better coach, so be it and Kev Mac goes back to the reserves.  My opinion though is that Kev Mac has been identified by Randy as being integral in the structure and that Kev Mac has told Randy where he sees himself and that is as 1st team coach with more of a say than what he had with MON.

So this takes us back to the manager who has to be a more general manager but, again in my opinion, closer linked to team affairs than the director of football that we have seen before in this country and that many have said have failed before.  Failure of the DOF has been due more to the people involved and the separation of the DOF from the manager.  What we require is a team that works closely together so that they are all work with a common aim.  The general manager would be responsible for the team playing activities from schoolboy all the way through to 1st team but having strong coaching teams at all levels to support him and take away the day to day coaching, allowing him the time to devote to his scouting network and buying/selling players.  The manager and 1st team coach would work together in indentifying positions needing strengthening and possible players but the general manager would actually go out and get them so that the coach can spend his time with the team.

I believe that there are very few managers in this country that could work in this system, especially the more 'recognised' names.  Even some of the up and comming managers will be stuck in the same old ways system and will not have the vision for it.  This is more like a European club structure.

I think that the realists have come to the conclusion that we will never have the money to be able to buy the players to win the PL and, so, if we are going to have ambition to try and win it, we have to 'break the mould' and try something new.

This will be a long term plan and will require a manager that will be with us for 5 years or more.  In my opinion, the likes of Sven and GH would be too short term as they would not have the drive to make this work.  Whoever is taken on will be a gamble but I think Randy wants somebody that will buy in to being an integral part of the club infrastructure but not somebody that, if they leave, the whole structure falls apart i.e. somebody that thinks he is bigger than the club itself.

The only person that I have read about that has this long term thinking to build this sustainable infrastructure and has studied different coaching and management methods is Jurgen Klinsmann.  There are others that appear to be progressive and funny enough most are German or North European.  The gamble with Klinsmann would be no management experience in the PL but he has the charisma and would appear to be well liked by the media, especially the TV pundits, many of whom played at the same time as he did.  His experience of playing here must have taught him much about club management.  People have said that he failed at Bayern Munich but he was pushed out before the system he was trying to set up started to take effect.  Growth area for the club has to be USA as I cannot see us breaking into the Far East.  Klinsmann is very well respected in the States and could help this growth.

If Randy gets this right, it could be the making of something big for the club.  There are no quick fixes, so I would say "Randy, take your time but get it right and it is Klinsmann and KM for me"

[brontebilly]

The sporting director thing works well in Europe. Noone seemed to complain too much at Spurs when Jol was there with Comolli either.

What I cant understand if why Walford, Robertson, McDonagh et al left with MON. Surely they all held individual contracts with the club and not with MON? McDonald, McAndrews and Cowans didnt leave so I dont understand it. To be honest I think if a manager brings in his own coaches en bloc it reeks of insecurity. Remember reading an article about McClaren at Twente, he said Bobby Robson had advised to go it alone and that it was a great decision. A club is wide open to the whims of a manager like MON taking off and bringing the club coaching staff with him. To be honest leaving like he did was despicable.

In that sense, its understandable that the club dont want to go through something like that again. We need someone to come in and strategically look at where the club could improve - scouting is a big one. Not just hire some clown like Ian Storey Moore but send our youth coaches out to Eastern Europe, the US, Africa etc. We shouldnt be just developing players, we need to develop coaches, scouts, administrators etc aswell.

Houllier would be a decent enough appointment as manager and sporting director. But I dont think he can do both. Kevin McDonald isnt up the task of manager. Assistant probably so we are in a pickle really.
On Houllier - he does have a fine record. He almost made the breakthrough at Liverpool similar to Benitez but at least he left the club in the Champions League. He did sign a load of players plus was fortunate that Gerrard and Owen emerged at the same time. Carragher was a utility player under him. Benitez moved him to centre half. He made many good signings - Hyppia, Henchoz, Hamann, McAllister etc but I guess he was always on borrowed time once the big money signings Diao and Diouf turned out to be utter shite. He would organise the team better which is badly needed. At Liverpool though he was pretty conservative and seemed to favour strong athletic players so I'm not sure if he would be the best fit for the likes of Ashley Young, Ireland, Albrighton, Downing, Gabby etc. He certainly would have a better eye for a player than MON as he wouldnt concentrate solely on Britain. He also became a bit paranoid towards the end of his time at Liverpool with the media and players so hope he has left all that baggage behind. His health is a huge concern but appointing him would be more of a safe pair of hands rather than someone who will take us into the Champions League imo.

[eamonn]

I doubt Villa are leaking anything to the press, more likely ''sources'' of the interviewees.

[old man villa fan]

I do not think Houllier is the way forward.  His successes at Liverpool are a long time back and at a time when Liverpool were expected to win things, not like they are now.  Liverpool at the time had money and should have been contenders for the PL but he did not deliver and the cup wins were viewed very much as runners-up prizes.  As others have said, he was not very successful in the transfer market and his brand of football was a bit too technical = dull.

Since Liverpool he has seemed to be on a downward curve as far as the jobs he has had.  Not on the level of the job but the intensity of the work involved, almost pushing towards retirement.  Could he handle the pressure of the PL now, I don't know.  Does he still have ambition or would it be just another job.  At 63 and working for a foreign football club, I cannot see where he will get that drive to succeed from and the source of inspiration for those that will follow him.  It is not like working for a French club or helping to develop French football.

[Dante Lavelli]

Old man villa fan:  You have described it exactly how I see it.
Trust me, that's not much of a complement but at least I'm not alone.

However I fear Randy sees it differently...

[tsvet]

I'd be massively disappointed with Houllier. I don't understand the excitment about him - may be because he's foreign... All I remember from his time in England is dross football, shit transfers and constant moaning. It'd be just like getting O'Leary back. And I haven't seen any evidence that he has some miraculous keys to the European academies where he'd pinch the world beaters of the future for Villa. All is just a hipe I think...
The only good thing about him was his last game for France!
17 years and still laughing...

So based on this I'm guessing if Capello came available you wouldn't have him? Nor would you have Laurent Blanc who majestically oversaw a defeat at home to Belarus tonight. And that quite possibly is the most dramatic statement ever made comparing us getting Houllier to a return by that most prize of wankers O'Leary. You'll be likening Florence Nightingale and Pol Pot next.

I don't see the logic why "based on this" I wouldn't like Capello. Indeed I'd have Capello as one of my top 3 picks of all current managers - available or not - as I am well impressed by his work rate, methods and success at club level (I tend to ignore the ongoings of England national side, as I believe problems there lie far beyond the manager's position).
Anyway, all I said was that with Houllier I won't be impressed or inspired - I do not remember any top brand football, neither exciting signings (if you don't count the excitement of trying to pronounce their names) during his spell in English football. He's too old to bring in anything modern into Villa. He's too much of a moaner for me. And I personally believe the fact most people see him as someone that has some hidden miraculous ability to attract top young talents, will turn up to be a major disappointment.  I could be wrong, but I do not believe the fact he works for some average French youth set up makes him more qualified to attract good players than any other manager in the business (MON naturally excluded ).
Ah, and my point about O'Leary was simply that the day we appointed him I started waiting for the day we'd fire him as I had more or less the same feelings about him (overrated moaner with no chance for success) - hence the comparison.
Regarding the video bit it was just a dig at the French and a romantic memory of what kind of players Bulgaria once had compared to the bunch of shitheads that let in 4 by pedestrian England...

[Mac]

I'd be massively disappointed with Houllier. I don't understand the excitment about him - may be because he's foreign... All I remember from his time in England is dross football, shit transfers and constant moaning. It'd be just like getting O'Leary back. And I haven't seen any evidence that he has some miraculous keys to the European academies where he'd pinch the world beaters of the future for Villa. All is just a hipe I think...
The only good thing about him was his last game for France!
17 years and still laughing...

So based on this I'm guessing if Capello came available you wouldn't have him? Nor would you have Laurent Blanc who majestically oversaw a defeat at home to Belarus tonight. And that quite possibly is the most dramatic statement ever made comparing us getting Houllier to a return by that most prize of wankers O'Leary. You'll be likening Florence Nightingale and Pol Pot next.

Didn't he say that "Ginola had killed French football"