Gerard Houllier

[OzVilla]

If he has gone it is a dreadful state of affairs.
Something more deeply wrong here. 
There will be no transfers in Jan, worth a damn, if he has departed.

I disagree, it would give us a chance to get a decent manager better equipped for what faces us, a chance to start again by some decent players in and get the dressing room back.  Thanks to MON leaving us in the lurch and an appointment that so many of us thought was the wrong one, we are in the position we are. 

I feel sorry for Houllier that he's had this injury list but as has been said, from day one he's consistantly dropped clanger after clanger either on the pitch or off it.  I have absolutley zero confidence in him now.

Nich chap i'm sure but not at all what we needed.  Heaven forbid, what we could probably do with right now, with this squad, is someone like Big Sam.  Yes, it's getting that bad.

[Brian Taylor]

MoN had his own set of players and they were not good enough for the fans with 6th places.
He appears to have left because the till was locked. OK he was looking at player(s) the fans did not consider worthy of the shirt.
Players and fans calling for the management to dismiss him after a few months is a terrible indictment of the current state of the game. There is no hope of him changing anything much in 4 months. He may have been a bit inept on the PR front personally but he needs, or needed, a year in my opinion.
More players worried they will lose their £50k a week pay packages than anything imo. How much do you have to pay to incentivise them?
Man City who seemingly have bottomless pockets were  Houllier's nemisis
I am no expert but I know there is something more amiss here than mere personality clashes.

[atomicjam]

I do not believe for one second that Randy would sack GH at this time. We have already lost one Manager with dreadful timing (all because that Manager could not have the moon on a stick), to think that Randy would throw us into further turmoil is just not likely in my opinion. We are almost certainly working right now on agreed potential signings and there will be agreement between GH and Randy on what we need, what we can look to get and what, if we can, sell on asap.

Yes, today was awful. Liverpool away was awful. Some of GH comments have been less than great (Liverpool away).

But coming into a club where a seasoned, experienced athlete says he is not fit (Carew), another is clealy not fit (Dunne) and a few who seem to have big wages and little heart gives any new Manager an up hill battle. Add to that injuries and yes people are saying , well they are back now and we are still crap- lets remember some have been back for one or two games, the team has had more variations in line up than the Four Tops- this will all take a bit of time to get right. I just hope he can get it right soon.

[brontebilly]

It has been over for Houllier since the Liverpool game probably even earlier. What we are witnessing now is a predictable long goodbye. Randy Lerner knows that his investment in AVFC is upshit creek if we go down which we seem certain to at the moment. This we have to give the man a year bullshit is clearly that. He took over a decent bunch of players maybe on the wane but for us to be scrabbling around the relegation zone in one of the worst EPL seasons in recent memory takes some doing.

[Simba]

I don't blame Lerner. I was surprised by the appointment of Houllier it's true. But after reflection could see that Lerner and co wanted to build on the sixth place and find a way into the top four.

Our complaint as fans was that under MoN we were too "English" is style and until we became more creative would never go any further.

Houllier fitted the demand for a successful, European minded Manager with a good pedigree, with a top club, in England. Unusual CV. And in theory just what we needed.


Now - Houllier is his own worst enemy, lost games, lost the fans, lost the dressing room and probably the board. Sack the bloody minded Frog and especially his- cardboard cut out -sidekick who never achieved anything. IMHO.

[Brian Taylor]

If you take it to to ultimate perspective then someone at the top took their eye off the road a long time back and we've been swerving between disaster and chaos for who knows how long.
If you ask how it was allowed to happen then Randy has to answer eventually.
The chicken farmers must be eyeing us up by now.
There must be a rich Chinese conglomerate out there looking for a prestigious club who can give them cache and us access to 1bn extra supporters.
Someone has to carry the can for the shambles. Houllier, if he alone goes, willl merely be the fall guy.

[Phil from the upper holte]

When he does go I hope we don't pay the fucker compensation

[ROBBO]

Its alarming and depressing how the balance has changed after one game, one we never expected to win.
I can excuse players like Petrov who have returned after long injury problems and are thrust by neccessity into the battle. Some can hardly be match fit and may not be for a few weeks yet. The majority though, if Dunne and Carew had any guts and proffessionalism they would be pleading to be put back the squad to help the cause. The fact is some players do not respect the club, the owner, the manager and most of all the supporters. I have often had a dig at Ash because i think he is capable of so much more but one thing i've never seen him do is lose his desire to win. Keep him as captain for now he's the only one worthy.

[Californian Villain]

It has been over for Houllier since the Liverpool game probably even earlier. What we are witnessing now is a predictable long goodbye. Randy Lerner knows that his investment in AVFC is upshit creek if we go down which we seem certain to at the moment. This we have to give the man a year bullshit is clearly that. He took over a decent bunch of players maybe on the wane but for us to be scrabbling around the relegation zone in one of the worst EPL seasons in recent memory takes some doing.

Agreed, although the Liverpool game for me was more about the abject performance than any of the other stuff. The Baggies aside, it's been more of the same ever since, and for all GH's talk of "turning a corner" it's getting harder to believe the team will do so. I think the rumored press conference this morning will be to put the manager out of his misery, and if it isn't, it will be before much longer.

[ozzjim]

THere seems an overwhelming tide against him now. I hope we beat Chelsea and he proves everyone wrong because I strangely like him. Don't think he will mind. Don't get inspired by Jol, or Allardyce. And lets face it the latter would be the obvious choice.

[Eigentor]

Back him. Sacking a manager after four months is ridiculous if you have any confidence in the process that brought him here. Yes, things are bad. Things are very bad. But Houllier has been in a crisis before; he is as unlikely to get us relegated as Big Sam. With Houllier there is at least hope that he, in time, will build a capable side. With Big Sam all we can look forward to is five seasons of hard to beat-dross masquerading as football leading to mid-table positions at best.

Some patience, eh? Note: we are not in the relegation zone.

[richardhubbard]

We are in a relegation battle 3 wins in 14 we are fucked

[NeilH]

In my mind there is no doubt that the board made a terrible error in judgement in getting Houllier in, which compounded the previous error of judgement of giving MON far too much autonomy. There is no way in a million years that, having made this terrible decision they will then panic and get rid after such a short tenure.
Like it or not and not matter what the consequences are for us, Houllier is going nowhere right now and given that, I am now increasing worried about our survival in the Premiership AND make no bones about it, relegation would be an utter and total disaster in every possible shape and form.

[Eigentor]

It's not like we have never experienced this kind of form before in recent history. In the last 14 Premier League matches of the 2008-09 season we had 2 wins, 5 draws and 7 defeats.

[Moorski]

Yes but we had points on th board to stand that bad run then, we do not have that luxury this time.

How many more players does he need to fall out with?