Gerard Houllier

[dave.woodhall]

But that seems to fly against your opening post on your own thread.  I think if I infer it correctly you are saying players should be able to get on with it no matter what.  So MO'Ns departure, or the timing of it shouldn't matter.

As I said there, it's not just a Villa thing. They should be able to perform better, but they don't.

[Concrete John]

Apart from the injuries he left us in exactly the state we are in now. He's the reason we had to choose a manager from a limited selection wirh the new man unable to do anything about the playing squad. Not all, but much of it is his fault.

He left us 6th with a hard to beat side.  Had the board acted quicker (admittedly hard) or more aggressively (as in approaching someone already in a job) then maybe we would have had more choices and some of the transfer window left.

His departure was a problem, but not something that should see us where we are now, although I agree injuries have also had an effect on this.  But everything that has happened since he walked out the door is down to the board and the new man they appointed.

[Risso]

We haven't got 5 or 6 more points though, and even that's not really the point.  Are we going to get enough points under Houllier  to stay up?  The evidence to date suggests not.

[pauliewalnuts]

He left us 6th with a hard to beat side.  Had the board acted quicker (admittedly hard) or more aggressively (as in approaching someone already in a job) then maybe we would have had more choices and some of the transfer window left.

I like the way you drop that in as if it's a fact that they didn't approach people in jobs.

Also, I wonder how easy it is to quicky convince managers to leave their current club and join you five days before the start of the season.

I'm guessing the answer is "not very". It's the same thing we're seeing across this forum, people demanding we sack Houllier now, which is all well and good, but totally unable to face what happens when we do that - as in, what happens tomorrow? Who do we approach? Who do we get in? How long will it take?

The most convincing replies i've seen involve Sam Allardyce, so there's really not much further need to comment on that.

I'm as pissed off with Houllier as the next man, and I too can sense the juggernaut of doom starting to gather pace, but whilst it is tempting to lash out and sack him, we'd only put ourselves in an even worse version of the situation the previous incumbent dropped us in in August. Pointless.

[dave.woodhall]

Apart from the injuries he left us in exactly the state we are in now. He's the reason we had to choose a manager from a limited selection wirh the new man unable to do anything about the playing squad. Not all, but much of it is his fault.

He left us 6th with a hard to beat side.  Had the board acted quicker (admittedly hard) or more aggressively (as in approaching someone already in a job) then maybe we would have had more choices and some of the transfer window left.

His departure was a problem, but not something that should see us where we are now, although I agree injuries have also had an effect on this.  But everything that has happened since he walked out the door is down to the board and the new man they appointed.

He left us with no points, and level in the table with everyone else. The season was about to start. No manager worth appointing and who was in a job would have joined us at that time. You cannot get around those facts.   

[kippaxvilla2]

While we are on the subject of the departure again, does anyone now believe he timed it to cause us this much damage?

[pauliewalnuts]

While we are on the subject of the departure again, does anyone now believe he timed it to cause us this much damage?

Do you reckon he's upset about it now?

[dave.woodhall]

While we are on the subject of the departure again, does anyone now believe he timed it to cause us this much damage?

If it were proved it wouldn't be the biggest shock I ever had.

[Bosco81]

In trying to turn us (allegedly) into a more professional outfit with 'proper' training drills etc, he has so far made us look like one of the most unprofessional sides on the pitch you could imagine.

That's what I can't get my head round, for all this double training, wanting to play a more passing game, we are a complete shambles.

Our threat from set pieces has gone, as has our ability to defend them, if all John Robertson did was lean on the post smoking a woodbine, can't we ask Gary Mac to take up smoking because it seemed to work.

At least Billy Mac left us Warren Aspinall, what's Houllier's legacy going to be ?

[Clampy]

James Milner left us a week into the season and was applauded onto the pitch by some of our fans yesterday. Could it be argued he left us in the lurch as well?

[kippaxvilla2]

We got no inclination at the Valencia game, however, that was as flat as a very flat pancake, then it all kicked off at the end of the weekend.  I just find it hard to fathom that even he could be that vindictive and calculating but there is evidence pointing to it.

[Chris Smith]

We haven't got 5 or 6 more points though, and even that's not really the point.  Are we going to get enough points under Houllier  to stay up?  The evidence to date suggests not.

I said if we'd had anything like a full strength squad to choose from. The evidence to date doesn't help in that respect. This is the worst run of injuries I have ever known in my time following the Villa and I'm ancient. Every time we've had a decent performance we've lost a couple more from that side the following week. I think any manager new to a club would have struggled with what he's had to deal with. We're just starting to get some players back now, he's also got the transfer window to make his own mark on the squad. We'll know much more about him in a couple of months.

[pauliewalnuts]

Is there something fundamentally wrong in our training set up that is causing these injuries, I wonder, or just bad luck? We were very lucky with injuries for a long time previously, maybe this is payback time.

I do think, though, that up front with Carew's susceptibility to bending his hair or cutting himself shaving thus ruling him out, and Heskey, despite actually putting the odd decent performance in this year, being the easiest injured man mountain alive, we have got to move these two on and replace them with more sturdy options.

[Concrete John]

He left us with no points, and level in the table with everyone else. The season was about to start. No manager worth appointing and who was in a job would have joined us at that time. You cannot get around those facts.   

I like the way you drop that in as if it's a fact that they didn't approach people in jobs.

Also, I wonder how easy it is to quicky convince managers to leave their current club and join you five days before the start of the season.

I'm guessing the answer is "not very". It's the same thing we're seeing across this forum, people demanding we sack Houllier now, which is all well and good, but totally unable to face what happens when we do that - as in, what happens tomorrow? Who do we approach? Who do we get in? How long will it take?

While none of us know who we approached or how we approached them, what we can be sure of is that on current evidence we got the wrong man. 

Were it me, I would have made a big move for Jol and paid whatever compensation Ajax wanted.  he walked out a few months later, so things can't have been 100% right for him there and I think the lure of a club like Villa (6th place and a generous chairman) would havwe got him to jump ship.

[Bosco81]

We got no inclination at the Valencia game, however, that was as flat as a very flat pancake, then it all kicked off at the end of the weekend.  I just find it hard to fathom that even he could be that vindictive and calculating but there is evidence pointing to it.

Wasn't that the game Walford was the only one on the bench, I think MON and Robertson were watching from the stand, which I thought was odd at the time.