Gerard Houllier

[brian green]

In my years of following Villa I have seen us relegated many times.  Every relegation we suffered had one thing and one thing only in common.  The correction of our faults was left too late.   The incumbent manager was always given too much time and necessary action was left too late to be effective.

Those of you calling people like Glasses and me idiots because we see the writing on the wall blatantly refuse to answer the single simple straightforward question - what single piece of evidence have you seen since Gerard Houllier was appointed our manager which shows him capable of having a better second half of the season than the first?  Has he showed one spark of effectiveness in team motivation? fitness? mental attitude? building team spirit? asserting psychological domination of our opponents? getting the crowd behind the team? team discipline? team tactics? match tactics? team selection? tapping up targeted players like we have to endure from others? instilling self belief into players? instilling a spirit of fighting for every ball right to the final whistle? making match turning substitutions?   There is no evidence of any kind whatsoever that Gerard Houllier, even if he is given the money, can buy his way out of the pit he has dug for himself.

When you can produce  some evidence that Houllier has the ability NOW not at Liverpool or in France when he was in his prime - NOW, to fight off relegation then you can call those of us who do not share your optimism idiots and compare us to Liverpool fans.

[MarkM]

Dwight Yorke
David Platt
Gareth Barry
James Milner

We are a selling club, we have been for quite a while.

All clubs are selling clubs at some point, and at some price.

Agreed, however selling your best player while riding high is one thing, selling them when you are potentially about to bounce into the Championship is something else.

I see you are not commenting on whether we will sell Ashley Young or not

Mark

[WikiVilla]

How come the likes of Everton (Cahill) manage to hang onto their world class players yet we can't
it's very frustrating

[TonyD]

In my years of following Villa I have seen us relegated many times.  Every relegation we suffered had one thing and one thing only in common.  The correction of our faults was left too late.   The incumbent manager was always given too much time and necessary action was left too late to be effective.

Those of you calling people like Glasses and me idiots because we see the writing on the wall blatantly refuse to answer the single simple straightforward question - what single piece of evidence have you seen since Gerard Houllier was appointed our manager which shows him capable of having a better second half of the season than the first?  Has he showed one spark of effectiveness in team motivation? fitness? mental attitude? building team spirit? asserting psychological domination of our opponents? getting the crowd behind the team? team discipline? team tactics? match tactics? team selection? tapping up targeted players like we have to endure from others? instilling self belief into players? instilling a spirit of fighting for every ball right to the final whistle? making match turning substitutions?   There is no evidence of any kind whatsoever that Gerard Houllier, even if he is given the money, can buy his way out of the pit he has dug for himself.

When you can produce  some evidence that Houllier has the ability NOW not at Liverpool or in France when he was in his prime - NOW, to fight off relegation then you can call those of us who do not share your optimism idiots and compare us to Liverpool fans.

Spot on!   (although we did play well against ManU for 80mins)

[pauliewalnuts]

Those of you calling people like Glasses and me idiots because we see the writing on the wall blatantly refuse to answer the single simple straightforward question - what single piece of evidence have you seen since Gerard Houllier was appointed our manager which shows him capable of having a better second half of the season than the first?

I wouldn't dream of calling either of you idiots, but will suggest that at times, we've played some very good football, and not got the points we really deserved.

Spurs away
Fulham away
Man United home
Blues CC
Stoke away

It's nothing that hints at us being due a charge into the top six, but you did ask for a single piece of evidence, and that'd be my suggestion.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

How come the likes of Everton (Cahill) manage to hang onto their world class players yet we can't
it's very frustrating

Maybe he's not as world class as you think he is. If he was, he would've gone by now.

[pauliewalnuts]

Dwight Yorke
David Platt
Gareth Barry
James Milner

We are a selling club, we have been for quite a while.

All clubs are selling clubs at some point, and at some price.

Agreed, however selling your best player while riding high is one thing, selling them when you are potentially about to bounce into the Championship is something else.

I see you are not commenting on whether we will sell Ashley Young or not

Mark

I've not commented on it on this thread as we've not sold him, so it seems a bit harsh to throw in him as evidence of us being a selling club.

I have said on other threads, though, that selling him in January would be absolute madness and only about getting a few quid more than waiting till the summer (when I think he'll be off)

[MarkM]

In my years of following Villa I have seen us relegated many times.  Every relegation we suffered had one thing and one thing only in common.  The correction of our faults was left too late.   The incumbent manager was always given too much time and necessary action was left too late to be effective.

Those of you calling people like Glasses and me idiots because we see the writing on the wall blatantly refuse to answer the single simple straightforward question - what single piece of evidence have you seen since Gerard Houllier was appointed our manager which shows him capable of having a better second half of the season than the first?  Has he showed one spark of effectiveness in team motivation? fitness? mental attitude? building team spirit? asserting psychological domination of our opponents? getting the crowd behind the team? team discipline? team tactics? match tactics? team selection? tapping up targeted players like we have to endure from others? instilling self belief into players? instilling a spirit of fighting for every ball right to the final whistle? making match turning substitutions?   There is no evidence of any kind whatsoever that Gerard Houllier, even if he is given the money, can buy his way out of the pit he has dug for himself.

When you can produce  some evidence that Houllier has the ability NOW not at Liverpool or in France when he was in his prime - NOW, to fight off relegation then you can call those of us who do not share your optimism idiots and compare us to Liverpool fans.

My thoughts exactly

[pauliewalnuts]

How come the likes of Everton (Cahill) manage to hang onto their world class players yet we can't
it's very frustrating

Like they held onto Wayne Rooney, you mean?

And Lescott (who isn't world class in the sense that none of the players we've sold recently have been either, but they wanted to keep him)?

[SteveD]

I can't see where Houllier's perceived "sense of adventure" is in his football. Stylistically, we have players whose pretty triangles are normally rigid rectangles of tedium. Mark Draper return, all is forgiven. Downing, an alleged winger, seems afraid of reaching the byline. There is never any sense of urgency. Addmitedly, Gerard has a love of open football, if only leaving acres of room in midfield and a farmyard formation in defence. Our football used to be dire though, with Young, Milner and Gabby rampaging on the break, so I'm glad we've moved on to something the purists can relish.

[Bosco81]

I was starting to feel a bit more positive today until I read Brian's post, which I can't find a great deal of fault in.

[TopDeck113]

There's an irony that Brian's splendid contribution as to the state we find ourselves in is his post number '1982'.

[russon]

Wonder if Houllier's been booked to sing You'll Never Walk Alone before our final home game of the season and relegation decider v Liverpool. I'm sure he'd jump at the (Dave) chance.

[eastie]

The players inherited are not suited to the passing game he wants to play- they are not good Enough to adapt to his style and therefore the squad needs an overhaul- in the long term we would see good football and results but we simply must survive this season- I think the team that starts in august would see more than half of o neills regulars jettisoned.

Randy has taken the decision to stick by houllier and must now fully back him in the transfer Market, the deals done in January will decide where our future lies, I really believe we will see 4 or 5 players coming in to revamp things.

[Concrete John]

We are not a selling club - certainly not since Randy took over.  A selling club is one that develops players and then sells them as they need the money to stay afloat, Crew being a prime example and Wigan something similar in the PL.

What we are is a club that struggles to hold onto our best players as they see riches and trophies elsewhere and want them.  We don't want to sell them, as  aselling club would, but we can't hold onto them.  Why that is is another matter entirely.