Official - Houllier leaves by mutual consent (p.28)

[JJ-AV]

Ancelotti or Benitez please.

[damon loves JT]

one problem the club need to address is the number of times stories have been leaked to the press this season from someone inside the club-who is the mystery mole?

I don't see it as a problem. Sorry

[SteveD]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13599979.stm Further from Pat Murphy.

A bit of a no brainer really, given his health and our last season's achievements. The final pay-off surely is that all that needs to be discussed? I'm not getting sentimental about it, I hope he enjoys his retirement, but in purely football terms it didn't work. Would be delighted with Moyes, Ancelotti or Jol.

Expect SSN/TalkShite will be in denial as it's not one of their "exclusives"

[Clampy]

I hope it's not Hughes. I'm not sure why he's a popular choice, he's not exactly pulled up any trees elsewhere, i think Fulham is the right size club for him. He made a bit of a mess at the Man City job once the money started coming in. Adebayor, Robinho, Bridge, Santa Cruz etc and he paid way over the odds for Lescott and Toure, although it could be argued he may not have known too much about those players coming in. I'd leave well alone.

[dave.woodhall]

The thing that worries me about appointing Ancelotti, is that as a club we are just a bit below his level. By that, I mean I think he may go out and spunk loads of cash on new players, but that cash will probably not be enough. Then when it doesn't go immediately to plan, there'll be noises about the board not backing him enough and rifts and he'll do one to Juve or Inter and we'll be left footing the bill.

Good point. As soon as he started doing well we'd have speculation he'd be off for every available job.

[MoetVillan]

I hope Houllier is ok.

[hilts_coolerking]

But we can't appoint someone in the hope that they don't do well enough to attract the attention of the very top clubs can we?

We want someone who will do precisely that.  And if / when that time comes, we'll deal with the situation then.

[mazrimsbruv]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13599979.stm Further from Pat Murphy.

A bit of a no brainer really, given his health and our last season's achievements. The final pay-off surely is that all that needs to be discussed? I'm not getting sentimental about it, I hope he enjoys his retirement, but in purely football terms it didn't work. Would be delighted with Moyes, Ancelotti or Jol.

Expect SSN/TalkShite will be in denial as it's not one of their "exclusives"

I don't like Pat Murphy's quote about this being 'in the interests of Aston Villa, not Gerrard Houllier'. It's an insinuation that we don't give a rat's ass about his health & well being.

I can hear Oliver Holt, Henry Winter et al, sharpening their pens (knives) ready for another round of Lerner-bashing.

Callous Lerner ruthlessly forces Houllier out the door despite doctors giving him the all-clear etc etc etc 

[Mister E]

I get the feeling the appointment is in the bag, especially with Reo Coker leaving. Dont know how the club would agree to that without a new manager being given a say.

On Houllier, undoubtedly he had good ideas but like GT second time around, the challenge of managing players was too much for him.

Re NRC, he was out of contract! Simple as. That's why he left at the end of the season - he was free to walk away, and did.
Re GHou, I don't think he failed the challenge of managing the players: I think he was halfway through the project wehn his heart gave out. This close-season would have seen the 'surgery' that the squad needed, with the inclusion of players more mentally equipped to work in the way that GHou wanted.

Letting go Reo Coker would be bizarre if Houllier was staying on as he was one of the few to give his all under his management. Still think it was strange to let him go anyway as if he really wanted out he would have signed a pre contract with someone else last Jan. For an extra 10k a week we would have had a player that we could have sold for maybe 5m next summer at the worst. Anyway I'll let that one go. I'll always have good time for him for giving his all considering the uncertainty about his future.

halfway to the championship was where we were going under Houllier imo, GMac for all his faults and there were many actually did alright and we picked up enough to points to stay up under him.

Too many good EPL players completely went to pieces under Houllier for it to be a coincidence. We were an absolute shambles under him, to say otherwise is revisionism. Maybe he tried to change things too soon. Bent and Walker were good signings but being a manager is more about bringing in players (Makoun and Pires werent as successful). Houllier wasnt up to managing players anymore and a change is best for all concerned.

I agree that NRC had more mileage for us - but between the club, the agent and the player it proved impossible to get a deal done and so he walked.
I guess there'll be a number of views on the brief GHou era. Mine is that he was in the process of dealing with a number of player-issues and gameplay challenges and needed the summer to complete the job.
Why a number of EPL players 'lost the plot' is a question with several possible answers: my view is that Dunne (forever unfit this last season), Collins, Warnock and probably Friedel did not see eye-to-eye with the new management team and their desired methods. The result of this (allied with the injuries we saw in the first half of the season) was a 4-5% decline in performance at the back and thus the leaking goals from set pieces and the failure to hold onto a winning position.
Whilst large parts of the season were a desert for us, there were a number of games where we played some scintillating football without always converting to unassailable positions.
I definitely am not trying to gild the lily here but there were latterly signs of progress finally being made ... but as I said above, there will be many interpretations of what happened during 2010-11.

[Mister E]

The thing that worries me about appointing Ancelotti, is that as a club we are just a bit below his level. By that, I mean I think he may go out and spunk loads of cash on new players, but that cash will probably not be enough. Then when it doesn't go immediately to plan, there'll be noises about the board not backing him enough and rifts and he'll do one to Juve or Inter and we'll be left footing the bill.

Good point. As soon as he started doing well we'd have speculation he'd be off for every available job.

I made a point on another thread that we might be better off with a manager who is not a Billy-Big-Bollox, but someone on the up and up from the lower divisions; who would regard our job as an honour and priviledge rather than as a stepping stone.
Problem is: I felt then - and still do - that this would only work if GHou stuck around as the senior partner and mentor.

[Stu]

The thing that worries me about appointing Ancelotti, is that as a club we are just a bit below his level. By that, I mean I think he may go out and spunk loads of cash on new players, but that cash will probably not be enough. Then when it doesn't go immediately to plan, there'll be noises about the board not backing him enough and rifts and he'll do one to Juve or Inter and we'll be left footing the bill.

Good point. As soon as he started doing well we'd have speculation he'd be off for every available job.

We had that with O'Neill as well though. In the end, we still don't really know why he left, but it wasn't to go to a bigger club. Or any club for that matter.

I agree with Hilts here, we need to get someone in which will show ambition and convince the people we mean business. Whether we have the money, and whether or not they would come is a different matter, obv. What I can't understand is people calling for Martinez. Wigan have been poor for the entirety of his management, and narrowly avoided relegation, again, this season. I don't think he would improve us at all.

Who else said Louis van Gaal? We can dream mate.

Dave Jones it is

[Stu]

The thing that worries me about appointing Ancelotti, is that as a club we are just a bit below his level. By that, I mean I think he may go out and spunk loads of cash on new players, but that cash will probably not be enough. Then when it doesn't go immediately to plan, there'll be noises about the board not backing him enough and rifts and he'll do one to Juve or Inter and we'll be left footing the bill.

Good point. As soon as he started doing well we'd have speculation he'd be off for every available job.

I made a point on another thread that we might be better off with a manager who is not a Billy-Big-Bollox, but someone on the up and up from the lower divisions; who would regard our job as an honour and priviledge rather than as a stepping stone.
Problem is: I felt then - and still do - that this would only work if GHou stuck around as the senior partner and mentor.

An untried manager at Prem level? That'd just cement what a lot of people already think: AV are also-rans, content to have the occassional run in the cups and europe, but don't think big enough to truly challenge. I'm fucking sick of it. If something like that happens, then it would just confirm the above for me as well.

And I'd still fucking go down to the match as well, the ******.

[ROBBO]

I wpuld imagine that GH had already lined up new players to come in, what happens now? i am far away from the action but most of you tend to rubbish unquoted reports from the media, why is this one being taken as gospel?

[eastie]

The thing that worries me about appointing Ancelotti, is that as a club we are just a bit below his level. By that, I mean I think he may go out and spunk loads of cash on new players, but that cash will probably not be enough. Then when it doesn't go immediately to plan, there'll be noises about the board not backing him enough and rifts and he'll do one to Juve or Inter and we'll be left footing the bill.

Good point. As soon as he started doing well we'd have speculation he'd be off for every available job.

that would be reservation about him , i dont think he would be long term,and would be off to a bigger club sooner rather than later.

[NeilH]

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but why is Van Gaal dreaming? I mean he’s currently out of work, has stated his desire to manage in England AND crucially given the circumstances is more than happy to slum it as long as he is given the correct control i.e. AZ.
We need to make a statement here and not go once more for the safe 'Villa' option. Get him in, be patient, build a lasting youth system and then reap the benefits.