Message From Houllier

[dave.woodhall]

No, that would be disrespectful, a cursary wave to the Kop in response the affection afforded to Houllier would have been fine without the sign touching, the misty eyed standing to attention to the Liverpool anthem, not to mention the post match comments about the defeat. He will be asked about Liverpool on a regular basis, I understand that, but a polite dismissal in favour of talking about the club that employs him would be more acceptable whereas our manager appears all too keen to wax lyrical about his former club, players and achievments. I don't believe that Hou is spitefull or ego driven, unlike DOL, but I would have hoped he had the emotional intelligence to understand the impact of his actions on Monday night.

Like Pires before him, any renewal of old freindships and nostalgic reminisence should be done in private and after completing the jobs they are paid to do.

He did no more, and possibly less, than Sir Graham when he returned with Watford. In any case, it's over now and I do hope we don't keep on about it forever..

[pauliewalnuts]

I may be in the minority but I found his actions, and those of Pires before the Arsenal match, cringeworthy and unprofessional.

Regardless of results, I expect better from my club.

What do you consider to be 'better' - totally ignoring a display of appreciation?

No, that would be disrespectful, a cursary wave to the Kop in response the affection afforded to Houllier would have been fine without the sign touching, the misty eyed standing to attention to the Liverpool anthem, not to mention the post match comments about the defeat. He will be asked about Liverpool on a regular basis, I understand that, but a polite dismissal in favour of talking about the club that employs him would be more acceptable whereas our manager appears all too keen to wax lyrical about his former club, players and achievments. I don't believe that Hou is spitefull or ego driven, unlike DOL, but I would have hoped he had the emotional intelligence to understand the impact of his actions on Monday night.

Like Pires before him, any renewal of old freindships and nostalgic reminisence should be done in private and after completing the jobs they are paid to do.

My thoughts exactly

[Nev]

No, that would be disrespectful, a cursary wave to the Kop in response the affection afforded to Houllier would have been fine without the sign touching, the misty eyed standing to attention to the Liverpool anthem, not to mention the post match comments about the defeat. He will be asked about Liverpool on a regular basis, I understand that, but a polite dismissal in favour of talking about the club that employs him would be more acceptable whereas our manager appears all too keen to wax lyrical about his former club, players and achievments. I don't believe that Hou is spitefull or ego driven, unlike DOL, but I would have hoped he had the emotional intelligence to understand the impact of his actions on Monday night.

Like Pires before him, any renewal of old freindships and nostalgic reminisence should be done in private and after completing the jobs they are paid to do.

He did no more, and possibly less, than Sir Graham when he returned with Watford. In any case, it's over now and I do hope we don't keep on about it forever..

There is a difference. Taylor had been a success at both clubs, and was rightly respected by both sets of fans having proved his credentials and his dedication to the job. I'm sure Watford fans still had faith in Taylor to do everything within his power to beat us, and knowing Taylor as some of us do, so did we.

As Sir Graham so often puts it though, it's about results and nothing else.

[dave.woodhall]

Watford were 4-0 down when he was waving to us.

[Greg N'Ash]

whole thing probably did us some good in relation to today's match and performance. However a DOL style witch hunt against the manager at this point because of some slightly over-played affection towards his old club would be a bit daft and devisive so hopefully its put to bed

[damon loves JT]

Gnasher - the voice of reason. I am going to bed

[KevinGage]

No, that would be disrespectful, a cursary wave to the Kop in response the affection afforded to Houllier would have been fine without the sign touching, the misty eyed standing to attention to the Liverpool anthem, not to mention the post match comments about the defeat. He will be asked about Liverpool on a regular basis, I understand that, but a polite dismissal in favour of talking about the club that employs him would be more acceptable whereas our manager appears all too keen to wax lyrical about his former club, players and achievments. I don't believe that Hou is spitefull or ego driven, unlike DOL, but I would have hoped he had the emotional intelligence to understand the impact of his actions on Monday night.

Like Pires before him, any renewal of old freindships and nostalgic reminisence should be done in private and after completing the jobs they are paid to do.

He did no more, and possibly less, than Sir Graham when he returned with Watford. In any case, it's over now and I do hope we don't keep on about it forever..

There is a difference. Taylor had been a success at both clubs, and was rightly respected by both sets of fans having proved his credentials and his dedication to the job. I'm sure Watford fans still had faith in Taylor to do everything within his power to beat us, and knowing Taylor as some of us do, so did we.

As Sir Graham so often puts it though, it's about results and nothing else.

Agreed Nev.

The Watford comparison is a duff one anyroad.

As you say, he had strong ties to both clubs over many number of years and for them to even be in the Prem that year was an achievement, as they were probably the weakest side in the playoffs.

If MON hag guided us to the CL and waived to Celtic fans on request we might have been OK with that (high fives, having a sing along with them pre game and saying he doesn't mind losing to them post game might still have been frowned upon though).

But for a new manager coming in, who still has to win over the support base and convince them he is up to the job more awareness was probably required. We're down quite a bit on recent years results wise. That hasn't entirely been of GH's making but he should have enough to contend with rather than trying to make the job more even difficult for himself.

[German James]

Can we assume he's got the message and all shut up about it now?

[pauliewalnuts]

Can we assume he's got the message and all shut up about it now?

There's always the "avoid this thread, which is obviously about it" option

I'm confused, I can't find the door for "people who think he was well out of order, won't be persuaded otherwise, but like him, think he's a good manager and don't want to use it as a stick to beat him with, so long as he has learned something from it"

[German James]

Well yes, there is always the thread avoidance thing, but that's a last resort, don't you think? ;-) It just seems to me like it's all been said.

[German James]

Double post, sorry!

[Jimbo]

Here's why I think it was important for Houllier not to be doing the things he did at Anfield. Please don't read it if you think we've done this to death.

Let's imagine he'd taken over at Arsenal or Man Utd, returned to Anfield, and did those things. How would it have come across then? Well, I don't think the fans of those clubs would have had to worry about it happening, because it would never have happened in that way. A slight wave, an acknowledgement, maybe, but not all the other gushing and fawning. There would have been absolute hell to pay, otherwise. Much worse than he got from us.

I think Houllier would have been under no illusion that - whether it was Arsenal or Man Utd he'd returned with - his new club would not stand for any such starry-eyed nonsense. And this is the crux of the problem. His perception was that it'd be okay to do what he did, because he returned with Villa. It was only Villa. We are not at the level of Man Utd, Arsenal or Liverpool. We're smaller than those clubs and, as such, shouldn't expect the levels of respect that the bigger clubs get. I don't for one second think that he reasoned any of this out before he went to Anfield, I think he did what he did naturally. But the feeling is there, we are a team that traditionally finished between 8th and 12th, remember. We're only Villa.

If ever we want to enjoy real sustained success, we have to, as a club, free ourselves of the 'we're only Villa' mentality. I fully believe that our many failures in the past, our inability to push on from positions of strength, our failure to win make-or-break matches, has been in part down to this psychological problem.

Think like winners, and you've got a better chance of winning. Think like losers, and you'll beat yourself before a ball has been kicked. Think like a team that will not tolerate losing habitually, and you'll bust a gut to win at all costs. At 2-0 down against Liverpool, we were already thinking we'd lost - as the manager admitted - when there was everything to play for. Neither Man Utd, Arsenal nor Liverpool would ever dream of thinking in that way.

Houllier's actions, and the subsequent internet drama-queenery, might have made him realise that - despite how Aston Villa are perceived in the media and in football generally - there are many fans out there that want to shake off the 'we're just Villa' mentality.

We're Aston Villa. We are fucking proud of that fact. And we demand that our manager - whoever he might be, whoever he's managed previously, and whoever he returns to play, with Aston Villa - respects that pride, leads by example and goes about instilling it among his players.   

I suspect Messrs Rinder and McGregor might have agreed. 

[sfx412]

Having watched his football focus interview again, I think his reaction to the continual questions concerning his lack of a 'sorry' suggests he knows he got it wrong. I do feel again from the interview he was caught unaware by the Villa fans reaction and was obviously upset by General K's comments.
On reflection he obviously and perhaps understandably has a love for Liverpool probably because of the manner of his departure and the events leading up to it. He has not yet come across as having a deep desire to be the Villa manager, or of having anything like the same idea of our greatness. But then we haven't won  anything for a bloody long time, were no better than an over achieving 6th placed team before he joined so perhaps his view is the correct one.
Pity he's not the sort to convince us otherwise, with words and his record so far certainly ahsn't convinced anyone from the results.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I think he's going to have to earn our respect again, I was in the Holte suite saturday when he came on the TV I heard a few Boo's and I noticed that no-one sang Houllier's claret & Blue army Saturday either

[WikiVilla]

Keep the results and performances coming and this will all blow over

Starting with a gutsy 3 points at Wigan please