jonnymac1979 wrote:that it's obvious he had to be on the take.
Sorry, I just want to explain this last post of mine, particularly this line above.
I'm not saying he was on the take, I'm saying that when this story broke, people immediately looked at his transfer record and said "Ahhh, that explains it then." automatically saying "Well, Houllier's definitely got to be involved hasn't he? All that money for those four horseshit players? Got to be on the take if you ask me."
People may use bungs as an excuse for signing the French based players, when in fact as I've already stated above, I haven't actually yet seen Houllier's name mentioned in any story. I do know of people who are suspicious of him though, some people are just cynical, I suppose.
He did have one nightmare summer in 2002 signing purely French based players. He's admitted since he made a mistake with Diouf. Who was to know at the time though?
The summer afterwards, he signed the right back selected in the Premier League Team of the Year by his peers, Steve Finnan, the at the time electric Harry Kewell and two players he'd signed previously but loaned out immediately to Le Havre, one the Top Goalscorer and the other Player of the Tournament in the World Youth Championships, Pongolle and Le tallec.