Gerard Houllier

[Clampy]

The win over everton was the biggest smash and grab since the great train robbery- we could and should have lost by 5 goals- west ham were awful and milner was outstanding- keV mac no no no!

It was'nt only Milner that was good that day, the whole team were and i'd take a few smash and grab's at the moment, i'm not fussy being only a point off the bottom three.

[jonzy85]

I accept there arent too many viable options were we to get rid of Houllier now, but I think we are in freefall and GH wont turn it around.

Owen Coyle would be my choice....bit of a gamble, but he is ambitious, seems to be able to manage players and quite young so could be a good long term option.

[Legion]

I can't recall a more unpopular manager than Houllier, even DOL commanded more respect

Totally disagree.

[eastie]

I take your point clampy but I felt as bad as yesterday was it was much worse the way we were thrashed 6-0 at newly promoted and very average Newcastle under kmac.

That display was on a par with the 6-0 at forest the year we went down and if that's kmac with the players wanting him to get the job then god help us if he ever took over again.

[WikiVilla]

Brian Laws anyone ?

[Nirog72]

Gus Poyet

[Clampy]

I take your point clampy but I felt as bad as yesterday was it was much worse the way we were thrashed 6-0 at newly promoted and very average Newcastle under kmac.

That display was on a par with the 6-0 at forest the year we went down and if that's kmac with the players wanting him to get the job then god help us if he ever took over again.

I think you mis-read my original post. I was sticking up for KMac yes, but i did'nt say i wanted him back, far from it. Bearing in mind he was thrown in at the deep end, he did his best and got us 6 points out of the first 9. We'd be on 14 points now if he had'nt.

[SteveD]

The fumbling around Houllier's appointment in the first place doesn't give me much hope the club will be decisive enough to act. Ellis at least seemed to have the art of hiring and firing down to a fine art, and probably always had a file marked "replacement" in his cabinet. We may not have guessed precisely when BFR's time had come but knew the writing was on the wall; while it was extremely naive not to have a plan B in case MON stormed off in a huff, I can only hope they've got something up their sleeve now.

There's no perfect time to become a football manager - most get their next job at the expense of someone else, and/or at a time of crisis or upheaval, often with the club struggling. There are rarely a set of perfect circumstances. Whether Houllier came in before the transfer deadline or after, it seems to matter little as the club did not want to spend any money - and this may have been precisely the reason for the previous manager quitting when he did. Even so, Houllier can be said to have been given a far more attractive hand than many - a club which was on the face of it stable and had qualifed for Europe the previous season.  In an ideal world, he'd have the time to bring in his own men, evolve the club, the step-by-step approach, but what the club can't countenance is relegation. It's unthinkable.  It's now a risk - stick with Houllier or bust. And before we know it, we're into February and March. Talk of "style of play" and "the next level" is out of the window, we just need a semblance of organisation, some motivation and some results. Houllier's whole body language doesn't suggest he has a clue how to achieve those.

I'd take Jol or Allardyce, or slightly harder to get McLeish or Bruce. Even Warnock.

[KevinGage]

I can't recall a more unpopular manager than Houllier, even DOL commanded more respect

Totally disagree.

I don't think I ever heard chants of 'O'Leary out!' until well into his third year, and even then it was isolated pockets of resistance. Even the internet lot only started to mobilise against him from about Nov/Dec 2005 onwards.

GH has managed that in three months, a rare achievement.

[WikiVilla]

We should have stuck with KMac until an outstanding manager became available instead of rushing it through

[dave.woodhall]

We should have stuck with KMac until an outstanding manager became available instead of rushing it through

Can you not remember the howls of anguish because we hadn't appointed a manager NOW!?

[cdward]

Houllier either doesn't even know his first choice 11, or he is alienating the high wagers on purpose so he can ship them out.
If he really doesn't know his first choice 11 by now (picking Delph and Hogg instead of Petrov and NRC, would indicate he doesn't), he should go, if he is alienating the first teamers because of orders from above, i.e reduce the wage bill then the January transfer window will tell all.
I fear the board have lost their bottle and we are shaping up for the next few seasons with little or no investment.
What Houllier (and the board) does in January will be interesting, although i fear he is already out of his depth.

[WikiVilla]

Also if GH was told to work with the players he'd inherited he's made a right old hash of it

[brian green]

There are some double standards being applied here.

We all agree that the young players should be given their chance and must be given time to develop their full potential.   So if that is the case for the great young layers KM and Sid have brought through why shouldn't KM get a proper shot at management?   He has done a fantastic job with the reserves and deserves more respect than he gets.

As for the Newcastle game if Carew had not blasted our penalty into row ZZ it may well have turned out to be a much more creditable result than the six nil drubbing.   I am not saying we would have won it but a, say, 3-1 defeat would have left Kevin with a bit of a shout for the manager's job.   Six nil had all the media reptiles spitting venom at us and Kevin's chance was gone.

I agree with the poster who said we should have faced up to the act of sabotage committed by O'Neill and defused it by the appointment of a longer term caretaker manager until a better choice of applicants was available.

The same applies to the present situation.   I am of the opinion that we must waste no more precious time on Houllier.   It is a luxury we cannot afford.   If I were Randy Lerner I would have a proven player motivator and dressing room trouble shooter appointed on a one year contract then out him once our position was secure and we have the time and stability to plan long term.   If that means Fat Sam sobeit.   I do not want Championship football at Villa Park.   It would kill me.

[Clampy]

If the reports are true that this Fofana kid is signing from Le Harve in the next couple of days, it dose'nt sound like GH is going anywhere just yet.