Gerard Houllier - RIP

[Pat McMahon]

73 is no age, and always seemed like a true gent in a similar way to Graham Taylor and Jimmy Armfield.  Rest in Peace and condolences to your family.

[SoccerHQ]

I wasn't a huge fan of his tenure for various reasons (primarily him being the replacement for MON in the first place) but no one can doubt his love of of football and he had the right ideas to get us going again but problem was short term he couldn't get most of the senior players onside. And the ones he did like Downing and Young were about to leave the club.

Did love him giving debuts to or regularly playing Clark, Albrighton, Bannan and lesser extent Hogg, the Fonz and Baker. Given they've all had solid career with Albrighton doing it in the premier league I imagine they all owe Gerard some thanks for guiding them on the right path as happened at Liverpool with those famous players coming through.

Of course the years after he left softened my views as it was clear what a poisoned job Villa had become. He was unlucky to replace MON when he did, a year earlier and he'd still have had Milner and more money to spend on defenders more to his liking rather than Dunne and Collins who simply weren't.

Certainly someone who lived and breathed Football and I think I can remember it said he didn't realise how big we were until his first matchday at VP so like quite a few outsiders who've joined us down the years.

R.I.P. Gerard.

[SoccerHQ]

Lerner bought him Darren Bent at that stage didn't he?

And Jean Makoun II, don't forget!

Jean II Makoun to be more precise!

Makoun had early issues with pace of the league but you could see his quality on the ball, I reckon with another continental manager who valued possession the next season he'd have proved a good player for us as he'd played for good teams in France.

Instead McLeish just lazily froze him out in favour of likes of Chris Herd....

Our midfield decisions at that time summed up the odd thinking at club at the time. Reo-Coker actually played well under Houllier but we kept on playing him every week seemingly thinking he was going to sign a new deal at expense of Makoun and also Michael Bradley who also came in that window. Bannan was also developing nicely at that time.

For next season could've had a starting midfield of Cabaye- Makoun-Bradley with likes of Bannan continuing to develop without pressure of starting every week and also Stan as backup. Instead our midfield became very poor and after we sadly lost Petrov we ended 2011/12 playing likes of Warnock and Heskey in central midfield.

[gpbarr]

RIP GH

[Risso]

Makoun didn't really do very much when he went back to France, or anywhere else after that.

[SoccerHQ]

At the time we'd signed him he'd been a regular for Lille and Lyon in CL so came with decent pedigree....and a nice jumper!

He just got lost in the strange transition to McLeish who'd probably never heard of him.

Michael Bradley went to Chievo and Roma and played very well in Serie A for a few years so he was certainly a what if given Americans generally adapt pretty well to premier league.