Houllier leaves Liverpool

[Éanna]

Not a fan of any Premiership team, but I have to say I was delighted to see the back of Houllier. Liverpool fans must be overjoyed. About time a club with its tradition was challenging and not hoofing around for the last Champions League place

[tiktok]

He's gotten them into Europe every year, but he's in no way made any inroads into the damage Souness and Evans after him did to that club. He spent 120 million on a collection of players that he can't field a decent first eleven from, if it wasn't for players that came through the ranks i.e. were already on the pools books when he took over he's have been gone much sooner.

It'll take any manager coming in a while to undo the damage though, no doubt Liverpool fans are delighted, but from any perspective at least they'll be better to watch from now on.

[Éanna]

hard to blame just souness and evans, in fairness houlliers signings have been brutal. the best business Houllier ever did in the transfer market was to get someone to take that lump heskey off his hands AND he even got money for him. other than that for the last 2 years liverpool have been awful

[tiktok]

what i was getting at was that while i think souness and evans did the damage, Houllier has just had them at that level since, he certainly hasn't improved things at the club

[4tothefloor]

Well Houllier the hoofmeister is gone now, I'm just praying to god that they don't appoint another glorified hoofmeister, the leaping lepracahun himself, Martin O'Neill. I hate his style of football, would love to see Mourinho, Benitz or Hitzfeld, especially Mourinho. He's a class coach.

[Éanna]

Think you're being a tad unfair on mr. o'neill there. He's always done the best he can with the players he has, so I'd imagine better players would mean better football. Celtic try to play some pretty nice stuff at times

[4tothefloor]

Well, maybe a bit unfair, but I don't like the way Celtic play. E.g. The way he uses Sutton and Hartson as target men, the wing back system etc. I want a manager who will play to the strengths of Gerrard, Kewell, Owen, Cisse etc. Target men and long balls are not suited to Liverpool. Houllier has just spent 6 years proving this. Mourinho has always played attacking football and coached at attack minded clubs. His philosophy is pass, pass, pass and move, which is the type of manager I want. O'Neill would have to adjust. I'm sick of adjusting, and 5 year plans etc. This new coach has to be right and he has to be able to deliver success and improvement relatively quickly, Liverpool do not have another 5 years to fart around with. They need a manager for the here and now and O'Neill is fourth choice in my list behind the others. If the rumours are to be believed, he's not even on the boards list.

[adamcarr]

He's gotten them into Europe every year.

Exceot for the first year when they came 7th!

[tiktok]

Exceot for the first year when they came 7th!

i stand corrected
he was even worse than i thought

[pineapple stu]

Very harsh on Mr Evans there tiktok! Evans got rid of deadwood (Dicks, Stewart, etc.), got other players playing way above their levels (Harkness, Thomas, Wright, Ruddock all got England caps while at Liverpool under Evans), played some great football, was no stranger to beating United, brought the youth through (Fowler, Owen, Carragher and the likes - Houllier and Souness ignored the youth academy by and large), won a League Cup (not much, but Houllier claims it as a marvellous achievement!) and never came below fourth, only not playing in the CL because it was much smaller then. If you look at the cumulative points won by Premiership clubs while Evans was in charge, Liverpool come second, not too far behind United. Liverpool have gone way back since Houllier took over, as opposed to being kept at the previous level.

I think Souness did most of the damage, Evans went a long way to repairing it before being forced out (mainly by the players) while from very early on, Houllier was looking a failure and was just lucky to fluke the cups he won otherwise he'd have been gone a lot earlier. Would love to see Benitez take over for his style of football, though it sounds unlikely.

[tiktok]

Fair enough Stu, points well made, I guess i was over critical of him. I guess you could also argue that the board were slower to allow Evans near the chequebook than they were with the managers either aside of him.

He was definitely the lesser of two evils when you consider Souness.

[4tothefloor]

You're wrong about Souness there Stu - he didn't ignore the youth academy. He introduced McManaman, Redknapp, Hutchison, Marsh and brought the likes of Rob Jones on as well.

[pineapple stu]

You're wrong about Souness there Stu - he didn't ignore the youth academy. He introduced McManaman, Redknapp, Hutchison, Marsh and brought the likes of Rob Jones on as well.

Redknapp signed from Bournemouth (by Dalglish), Jones came from Crewe, Hutchison came from West Ham I think - none of them joined Liverpool before the age of about 19. Not sure where Marsh came from - not sure if it was the youth academy - but will concede McManaman. Still, one player through the youth system is Houllier standards!

[Macy]

So long Agent Hoolahoop, you'll be sadly missed.

[NeilMcD]

I am not a liverpool fan but i would reckon the damage was done by daglish who totally ignored the academy because there was none, Souness set it up and the fruits of that were then brought trhough by evans as it take a few years for it to come through like it did at Utd. SOuness looked at Utd and set up a youth system as a result His signings were terrible though

[Gary]

I honestly cannot understand why Benitez would even be interested in Liverpool, or any premiership team, and i say this as an armchair Pool fan.

Maybe the challenge is attracting him, of clearing out the crap that Houllier bought ie Diouf, Diao, Biscan, Cheyrou. And maybe to get the best out of players who have been way under utilised ie Pongolle, Kewell (used alot, but to no great effect), Owen (Imagine how much he can score under a good footballing manager).

Personally, I would go for O Neill, even though I think he is an annoying ****, much like Eanna!

One way or the other, it'll be a good 4 yrs before any manager will come near Premiership success with Liverpool.

[Declan_Michael]

If you look at the managers touted I can see why they would take the Liverpool job.

Mourinho (going to Chelsea anyway) has achieved everything at Porto it could only go downhill if he stayed.

Benitez - as above but with no real cash avalible to challenge for the Champions League.

O'Neill has done a great job at Celtic but again they don't have the funds, the players or the ability to attract big names to challenge for the Champions League.

At Liverpool you are building the team around a guy who will become the best in Europe IMO, Gerrard and a quality striker in Owen.

[adamcarr]

Anyone recognise this list?

Jan 1999: Jean-Michel Ferri from Istanbulspor £1.5million

Jan 1999: Frode Kippe from Lillestrom £700,000

Jun 2000: Bernard Diomede from Auxerre £3m

Sep 2000: Gregory Vignal from Montpellier £500,000

Nov 2000: Daniel Sjolund from West Ham £1m

Who are these guys?

[pineapple stu]

Ferri was a centre-mid (Ferri, cross the Mersey... ) who played about five games before being shipped out again. Diomede was a winger who apparently played some great games pre-season but then never delivered. Vignal and Kippe were some random full-backs, again did nothing. Sjolund I'm not even sure...

There was also Sean Dundee - played about two games - Pegguy Arphexad (never played; ended up as fourth-choice keeper) and some more I'd say. Quite an incredible waste of money! And he has the gall to say there's no quick fix to Liverpool challenging for the title again! Just sell those players and spend the money on decent ones!

[Gary]

To be fair, Vignal, when he was given a run was decent enough. He was just unlucky to be behind the very consistent Jamie Carragher/Finnan and Riise.

Diomede won a world cup medal with France, seemed to be a good signing, but it just didnt happen.

Sean Dundee. Saw his debut in the Cralsberg tournament in Dublin. He looked ok, scored a few goals as well, if memory serves.