Gerard Houllier

[Hadley83]

I don't see the point in getting rid of Houllier now, we need to give him January to get rid of the deadwood, trouble makers and those that think they are to good for us.

If we get a new manager it will take him time to work out what we now know and that is alot of players are past it, not good enough and don't care, but also we have some very very good young players in Lichaj, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark and Delph.

I am as disappointed as anyone with results and lack of passion but think we need to get behind the team and manager and see where we are at the end of the season.

[puppyfeat]

I am worried though bug style..Chelsea away next

Yeah worried bug style just about sums it up - like a beetle about to be crushed under a great big boot.

[TimTheVillain]

I think said Manager lost it at the Liverpool lovefest.

He's lost the fans and the dressing room.

If I owned Aston Villa I'd appoint Allardyce for the last half of the season as I think he'd keep us up , then crack on from there.

[Lobsterboy]

I don't see the point in getting rid of Houllier now, we need to give him January to get rid of the deadwood, trouble makers and those that think they are to good for us.

If we get a new manager it will take him time to work out what we now know and that is alot of players are past it, not good enough and don't care, but also we have some very very good young players in Lichaj, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark and Delph.

I am as disappointed as anyone with results and lack of passion but think we need to get behind the team and manager and see where we are at the end of the season.

I admire your positivity and optimism but fear 'The Championship' is where we will be at the end of the season if we carry on with Houllier...

[Shrek]

Randy has no idea about the game, plenty of heart but no football sense

That could have been what MON thought and decided to go

OR

Randy said your not wasting anoter £20m on shite and he walked?

No-one can criticize Learner for appointing Houllier as he was the best at the time.

I am worried though big style..Chelsea away next

I'm sorry that's utter bollox,

The best available my arse!

Randy showed no balls or football sense by declaring that he won't approach anybody in a job. We should have gone for the best man, not the best man available!

Randy is a good owner, but is getting his fingers burnt for being naive and not recruiting a football man to assist him.

[jembob]

Not sure if it's houllier, more like it's McAllister. A Coventry fan told me he completely F"*^ed up cov by his tactics and he would do the same to us. Good player but no coach or Assistant manager.

It looks like a combination of all of them. I must say that I was willing to give Houllier the benefit of the doubt but my opinions of him have changed very quickly. My reasons being:

1. There was no bounce when he arrived. Normally players make an effort to impress a new manager but after Houllier's appointment there seemed to be little improvement. apart from Heskey.
2. When behind at half time, we have not come out for the second half with a have-a-go performance. Today was a typical example of being down 3-0 but coming out after the break with no apparent plan to get back into the game.
3. Some team selections have been bizarre and on a par with MON.
4. If we were in a transition between MON's direct style and fantastic, flowing football then there may be a case for giving them time but it's not apparent what is going on or what they are trying to achieve.
5. Player morale is clearly atrocious and we don't even seem to have many positives to talk about.
6. Despite having a dreadful injury crisis, our main problems so far have been with experienced players seeming to be disorganised. Rather than improving the quality of our play, the whole set up looks to be a real shambles.
7. Houllier has shown that he cannot get much out of the players that are fit.

I hate to call for people to be sacked, but we need to cut our losses and save what's left of a difficult season. The plain fact is that under Houllier we have got 13 points from 14 games in a relatively poor Premiership and that cannot be allowed to go on.

[TimTheVillain]

I don't see the point in getting rid of Houllier now, we need to give him January to get rid of the deadwood, trouble makers and those that think they are to good for us.

If we get a new manager it will take him time to work out what we now know and that is alot of players are past it, not good enough and don't care, but also we have some very very good young players in Lichaj, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark and Delph.

I am as disappointed as anyone with results and lack of passion but think we need to get behind the team and manager and see where we are at the end of the season.

Hadley welcome to H&V, welcome to the Championship too........

[taylorsworkrate]

Randy has no idea about the game, plenty of heart but no football sense

That could have been what MON thought and decided to go

OR

Randy said your not wasting anoter £20m on shite and he walked?

No-one can criticize Learner for appointing Houllier as he was the best at the time.

I am worried though big style..Chelsea away next

Really?  So we are not allowed to at least enquire about managers at other clubs.  Other teams do it

Early in the season we wasn't the massive shambles we are now, and would have been an attractive proposition for quite a few decent managers.

Don't get me wrong, Randy has done a massive amount of good for this club.

Appointing Houllier though has turned into a HUGE mistake.

[Hadley83]

I don't see the point in getting rid of Houllier now, we need to give him January to get rid of the deadwood, trouble makers and those that think they are to good for us.

If we get a new manager it will take him time to work out what we now know and that is alot of players are past it, not good enough and don't care, but also we have some very very good young players in Lichaj, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark and Delph.

I am as disappointed as anyone with results and lack of passion but think we need to get behind the team and manager and see where we are at the end of the season.

I admire your positivity and optimism but fear 'The Championship' is where we will be at the end of the season if we carry on with Houllier...

Don't get me wrong I am abit fearful of that, but without saying we are to good to go down, we aren't that bad. Lets just see what January brings I think it will surprise a few people and show the Chairman ambition and commitment is still there.

[nuninho]

If we'd have got Hughes that would be one side above us....

Anyway - anyone notice Sid distancing himself from GH and McAllister on the bench last couple of days?

[puppyfeat]

I hate to call for people to be sacked, but we need to cut our losses and save what's left of a difficult season. The plain fact is that under Houllier we have got 13 points from 14 games in a relatively poor Premiership and that cannot be allowed to go on.

This. Just looking at the table right now makes me shudder - only Wolves (who are surely doomed) look worse than we are, and even that's a close call.

[KevinGage]

And get fucking Ian Holloway.

Christ no!
On what basis would you want him, or Owen Coyle?

They've achieved nothing yet and Holloway managed to send Leicester down, despite generous transfer funds.

Coyle on the other hand has done well at every team he's managed. He's unlikely to "achieve" much at Bolton but he certainly manages to combine good football AND a motivated team, something neither MON or Houllier could/can do. You could argue Ron Saunders never achieved anything before joining Villa, apart from losing a couple of League Cup finals.

I'm not convinced Mark.
It seems like a flavour of the month choice to me.

I think there's a lot more to him than that. He's completely changed the way Bolton play. What he doesn't have is experience in the top end of the transfer market and I very much doubt he has a scouting network much bigger than MON's. He does appear to grow with every job he takes. We could do a lot worse. I'm not saying I want him but he'd be one to have on the list.

He'd be one of a few to keep an eye on.

I'd also include Di Matteo and Michael Laudrup in that bracket.  But the problem is if we did make an appointment in the near future we'd need a bloke capable of hitting the ground running.

Coyle took over a struggling Bolton last year so I guess that's another tick in the box. For the likes of Di Matteo, Laudrup and even Jol I'm not entirely convinced they'd be the the blokes to bring in in a crisis, more the type who would need a full pre season and time to sign their own players to have the desired effect.

You could argue that Houllier needs the same and under normal circumstances I'd agree. But sometimes a performance can be so bad, so drastically below expectations that you need to take action. By that I mean performance of the manager obviously, rather than individual team performances. Though they have been shit too.

[Irreverent ad]

I am still going to back him. I think the team needs fresh blood. There has been no outward investment in 2010 by Randy. However, I am sure Randy will give him funds in January.

I think if GH can get two or three players in. One CB, one CM and a striker who all understand his way of playing. I think it will freshen the team and put a boot up the likes of Collins, Agbonlahor etc.

How many points were people expecting out of the games against Man City (A), Spurs (H), WBA (H), L'Pool (A), Arsenal (H), Blackburn (A) and Man U (H). I would have expected 3 or 4 points. A win v West Brom and maybe a point at B'burn. And we got 4 points.

That is a tough run of games. As a flip side of that we have some winnable games to come through Jan, Feb and March.

A good indicator is to do the BBC predictor. I would be shocked if anyone seriously has us in the bottom 3. I get us in 7th on 51 points. 20 points away from L'pool in 6th and teams being relegated on 34 points.

I think we will easily be fine. The problem with GH is that at best when he joined only about 60% of the fans thought he was the right guy and that drops when people get itchy feet as we lose...BUT look at the games we have had Lets all get behind this guy for a change and see where we are at the end of the season!

Up the villa!

[eastie]

Sky said we haven't taken a single point this season from a game in which we have gone behind in-that is truly frightening and suggests total lack of fight and motivation.

[Oscar Arce]

This clown is going to take us down, get rid now this is the final straw.
I hate the thought of Allardyce, but at least we'd be instantly more organised with none of the petty fall-outs Houllier has brought to the club, get Carew, Dunne, maybe even Ireland playing for us instead of doing us no good sitting at home counting their money.
Maybe even Houghton as a coach ?
Did'nt think I'd get this desperate but we are in need of some action from our owner, and quick.
We are going down if this is'nt sorted quickly.