Houllier

[WhyAlwaysMe?]

List Liverpool Managers of the last twenty years in order of WhyAlwaysMe's preference:
1. Rafa Benitez
2. King Kenny Dalglish
3. Brendan Rogers
4. Roy Evans
5. Gerard Houllier









6. Roy Hodgson

 

[Portly]

Steve Finnan was a great RB, by the way.

 

[ILD]

Steve Finnan was a great RB, by the way.

He was.

On a side note, I was often shocked to see Steve Carr and others picked ahead of him in the Irish set up. Finnan had 50 odd caps for us but I remember him being at sub at times also.

 

[RedStar]

You mean Rafa who stalked us like a lost ex girlfriend for 4 years after he left? No genuine affection? Where were you for 2004-2013!

Rafas constant politicking was entirely self serving at the expense of the club. I always felt that with Rafa it was about what was best for him first and the club second. He was a better manager than Ged

 

[gkmacca]

Ged was an endearing soul. The number of times, at away grounds, I saw him having a look at the pitch pre-match only to get soaked when the sprinklers started - I lost count. In fact both he and Rafa seemed like really good and decent people away from football. It was sad to see what the pressure did to them. Hopefully Houllier is enjoying a more relaxing life these days.

 

[peterhague]

Random one this, but in light of all this Rodgers bashing(and rightly deserved to a large extent), and Gerrard's comments about Rafa in his book etc etc...what's the general consensus of good old Houllier's reign? It gets forgotten about a bit too easily amongst Liverpool fans I feel. Although I suppose the style of football was dull at times to say the least.

But he loved/loves Liverpool Football Club. He left us with some unforgettable memories.

Allez, allez, allez, allez, Gerard Houllier.

I think he's overrated. He had a lot of things go his way but only got quite modest results IMO. The money he spent was probably the most lavish net investment we've given any manager since Souness. Owen was just maturing as he took over and the emergence of Carragher and Gerrard were like 2 more free players for his squad.

I think he should've done much better with what he had, and the state he left the squad was a disgrace. And most of the football we played was *dire*.

On the other hand, the earlier incarnation of his team had real grit and nerve, and won its battles in big games and finals. And he gave Stevie G lots of hugs and cuddles so it's all good.

 

[Judge Jules]

It was a case of "so near and yet so far" with GH. He pulled off a masterstroke signing Anelka on loan (most on here, including me, thought at the time that he was mad) and making us the most dangerous attacking team in the Prem bar none for the 6 months that Anelka was with us, but then it all went belly up. He dropped a thunderous ricket by turning Anelka down for a permanent deal and spunking I dread to think how much on Spit the Dog instead, but despite that he had us playing some really nice stuff the following season, only to lose his nerve completely and re-impose crabwise defensive football after we shipped a couple of goals (in games we mostly didn't even lose). The squad visibly wilted after that, we went on our worst run for more or less half a century and neither he nor the team ever really got their mojo back.

 

[Silver Sean]

Anyone who underestimates what he did for the club in his time there is either short on memory or long on stupidity.

 

[Silver Sean]

Wasn't it 2-0?

Yes it was:

Was there that night. Wonderful. We'll be lucky to see nights like that again for a while.

 

[Judge Jules]

Anyone who underestimates what he did for the club in his time there is either short on memory or long on stupidity.

Absolutely. A number of us said on here when things did begin to unravel that it was a pity he was risking tarnishing his own legacy, which is definitely a positive one overall.

 

[localny]

Everything unravelled, but he really did help us move forward. Rafa took us even further forward. Neither were the ones to bring home the PL.

 

[localny]

Personally..

1. Rafa Benitez
2. King Kenny Dalglish
3. Houllier
4. Roy Rodgers
5. Roy Evans
































































Roy Hodgson doesn't even make the list

 

[peterhague]

I resent the credit Houllier gets for 'saving' the club from the spice boy era. That has always seemed ridiculously generous.

The real story was that he was lucky to follow a completely inept manager, and that the simple steps of restoring basic discipline and respect were made to look far more heroic than they were.

 

[juniormember]

He won too many trophies for luck to have been the major factor.

 

[Judge Jules]

I resent the credit Houllier gets for 'saving' the club from the spice boy era. That has always seemed ridiculously generous.

The real story was that he was lucky to follow a completely inept manager, and that the simple steps of restoring basic discipline and respect were made to look far more heroic than they were.

Disagree. Those steps may be simple to sum up but they won't have been anything like so simple to implement, given the amount of power Uncle Roy had conceded to the players.

 

[peterhague]

Fair enough, agree to differ. In my experience a strong character revels in such situations, and actually enjoys the resulting conflict.

 

[gkmacca]

I think Houllier has to be given quite a lot of credit for modernising the club. He changed the culture as far as fitness and general lifestyle was concerned for the players. He completely revamped the facilities at Melwood, taking them from a place where Ronnie Moran kept his bucket and sponge to a state of the art contemporary training and medical centre. And he restored some discipline, pride and purpose at a key time. On top of all that, he won us some cups and got us back on the map in Europe. There are lots of criticisms about his style of play and his 'mad era' that are definitely fair to discuss, but the man did plenty of good.

 

[Vlads Quiff]

I think Houllier has to be given quite a lot of credit for modernising the club. He changed the culture as far as fitness and general lifestyle was concerned for the players. He completely revamped the facilities at Melwood, taking them from a place where Ronnie Moran kept his bucket and sponge to a state of the art contemporary training and medical centre. And he restored some discipline, pride and purpose at a key time. On top of all that, he won us some cups and got us back on the map in Europe. There are lots of criticisms about his style of play and his 'mad era' that are definitely fair to discuss, but the man did plenty of good.

This - I am aghast at the lack of respect shown by some here for Houllier who in my opinion has been our most influential manager of the last generation

 

[Vlads Quiff]

He ran Fowler out of the club so I'll always be meh about him.

We won a bunch of trophies which was great but like the rest he failed in the main area he was brought in for.

We should have won the title in 2002

Robbie Fowler ran Robbie Fowler out of the club - no one else - What Ged did do was draw him back from the edge of a fucking huge black abyss he was just I about to fall headlong into and at the same time pull a master stroke and get £12m off Leeds , which was a lot of money at the time - in fact that along with Matteo finished Leeds off .
He deserves massive credit not "meh"

 

[Portly]

I agree Robbie Fowler was a busted flush by the time the club sold him to Leeds.

 

[Arn]

I think Houllier has to be given quite a lot of credit for modernising the club. He changed the culture as far as fitness and general lifestyle was concerned for the players. He completely revamped the facilities at Melwood, taking them from a place where Ronnie Moran kept his bucket and sponge to a state of the art contemporary training and medical centre. And he restored some discipline, pride and purpose at a key time. On top of all that, he won us some cups and got us back on the map in Europe. There are lots of criticisms about his style of play and his 'mad era' that are definitely fair to discuss, but the man did plenty of good.

This. I can still remember when I tried to buy a Liverpool shirt and the response was almost always out of stock. You couldn't get one. It isn't easy to be successful when Moores is the owner and Parry is the CEO.

Robbie Fowler ran Robbie Fowler out of the club - no one else - What Ged did do was draw him back from the edge of a fucking huge black abyss he was just I about to fall headlong into and at the same time pull a master stroke and get £12m off Leeds , which was a lot of money at the time - in fact that along with Matteo finished Leeds off .
He deserves massive credit not "meh"

This. If Fowler had put football first and trained hard instead of being lazy then he could have been one of the best players in the world. He had the talent but he wasted it. A typical spice boy and why Houllier had so much to do.

 

[Mamma Mia]

This. I can still remember when I tried to buy a Liverpool shirt and the response was almost always out of stock. You couldn't get one. It isn't easy to be successful when Moores is the owner and Parry is the CEO.



This. If Fowler had put football first and trained hard instead of being lazy then he could have been one of the best players in the world. He had the talent but he wasted it. A typical spice boy and why Houllier had so much to do.

Did you do an English course this morning?

 

[Portly]

English seems OK to me! 🙂

 

[Mamma Mia]

English seems OK to me! 🙂

Such an astounding improvement in so short a time!

 

[Best Believe It]

Did you do an English course this morning?

This.

 

[Arn]

Did you do an English course this morning?

 

[Arn]

This.

 

[Mamma Mia]

 

[Arn]

 

[cloggypop]