Liverpool FC Forum

by **JBG** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:57 pm

Maybe people already know this story but I read about it last week in a book on Gerard Houllier.......

I just though I would share it with everyone.

A lot has been made of Gerard Houllier's inspired signing of Sammi Hyppia, especially at the end of the 1999/2000 season when Houllier was described as a "transfer market genius" by some for his brillant knowledge of the European leagues which allegedly enabled him to capture a complete unknown who happened to turn out to be a diamond in the rough.

The truth is, Houllier had never heard of Sammi Hyppia when the Frenchman took over from Liverpool. The great discoverer of the Finnish giant was not Houllier or any of the coaching staff, but a DUTCH CAMERAMAN!!!!!!

Apparently a Dutch cameraman covering a game at Anfield in the 1998/99 season managed to wander into then Chief Executive Peter Robinson's office and alerted PR to the existance of a class centre half in the Dutch league. Normally the likes of PR receive dozens of "tips" from amauter scouts and fans every week but such was the Dutchman's insistance of Hyppia's quality that PR mentioned it to Houllier. Houllier then apparently made little of it until he got word that Peter Reid of Sunderland was about to make a bid for Hyppia. Only then did Houllier have the player watched and we beat Sunderland to his signature.

Fair play to Houllier for bringing Hyppia to Liverpool but I don't think Gerard can claim all the plaudits here: 90% of the praise must go to that unnamed Dutch cameraman!

by **stmichael** » Sun May 23, 2004 5:01 pm

sounds about right. if houllier had spotted him he probably would have complained that he "wasn't a liverpool player".

by **macca7** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:22 pm

God people! Houllier can never do anything right in your eyes can he?
Can you not admit that although he have not done as good as we all expected, and he made a number of poor signings, he did have some success.
And the capture of Sami, Cameraman or not, was a BIG success. :blues:

by **stmichael** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:26 pm

chill out man it's just a bit of fun. houllier has brought some success back to this club, but not in the competitions that matter most to the supporters. :cool:

by **macca7** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:30 pm

Competions that don`t matter....
I bet you were out for dinner on the UEFA Cup night! And you did not jump and scream you voice out when Owen was scoring those two goals against the Gunners!
Competitions that don`t matter! Yeah right!

by **stmichael** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:38 pm

i was in cardiff and dortmund for those games.

fantastic achievements in their own right. of course those competitions matter. i never said they didn't.

all i'm saying is would you have swapped those three cups in the treble season for winning the league? does winning the odd cup here and there excuse being 30 points behind arsenal and scraping into the champions league qualifiers?

i rest my case.

by **jonnymac1979** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:58 pm

John Barnes' Granny wrote:Maybe people already know this story but I read about it last week in a book on Gerard Houllier.......

I just though I would share it with everyone.

A lot has been made of Gerard Houllier's inspired signing of Sammi Hyppia, especially at the end of the 1999/2000 season when Houllier was described as a "transfer market genius" by some for his brillant knowledge of the European leagues which allegedly enabled him to capture a complete unknown who happened to turn out to be a diamond in the rough.

The truth is, Houllier had never heard of Sammi Hyppia when the Frenchman took over from Liverpool. The great discoverer of the Finnish giant was not Houllier or any of the coaching staff, but a DUTCH CAMERAMAN!!!!!!

Apparently a Dutch cameraman covering a game at Anfield in the 1998/99 season managed to wander into then Chief Executive Peter Robinson's office and alerted PR to the existance of a class centre half in the Dutch league. Normally the likes of PR receive dozens of "tips" from amauter scouts and fans every week but such was the Dutchman's insistance of Hyppia's quality that PR mentioned it to Houllier. Houllier then apparently made little of it until he got word that Peter Reid of Sunderland was about to make a bid for Hyppia. Only then did Houllier have the player watched and we beat Sunderland to his signature.

Fair play to Houllier for bringing Hyppia to Liverpool but I don't think Gerard can claim all the plaudits here: 90% of the praise must go to that unnamed Dutch cameraman!

I've read the book JBG. Is it called Gerard Houllier: The Liverpool Revolution by Stephen F. Kelly?

by **JBG** » Sun May 23, 2004 9:48 pm

Spot on JohnnyMac.

Its a very poorly written book with loads of inaccuracies (he says we qualified for Europe in 1999) but there were one or two interesting nuggets of info in it.

By and large sports books are poor and I have a feeling that Stephen Kelly wrote it in a weekend.

Incidentally, the author spoke about visiting a website comparing Houllier to Roy Evans. I remember last November Owzat and I ran a popular thread under which we asked whether Liverpool have really moved on under Houllier. While Houllier has done very well in the cups his record in the league wasn't better than Roy Evans, and Owzat dug up a lot of stats to back this up.

Maybe the author visits this forum?

by **Sean** » Sun May 23, 2004 10:06 pm

In hindsight I reckon Roy Evans was hard done by. He took over a shambles from Souness and developng a very entertaining team. It's just a pity David James spent more time playing video games than concentrating on dealing with crosses and that we didn't have a top-class centre half.

We threw away the 1997 title and with bit of luck could have taken the FA cup in '96.

Seán

by **JBG** » Sun May 23, 2004 10:18 pm

I agree that Roy Evans was hard done by and I feel very sorry for the man every time I see him on tv.

There were serious problems under Roy Evans but I think the whole arguement that Houllier turned us from being a soft touch into tough men is a myth.

We have been just as much a soft target for smaller teams under Houllier than we were under Evans and I think there was something of a witch hunt in the early Houllier days against Roy Evans regime.

In Roy Evans' day we were closer to the top than we are now and Evans would have had us in the Champions League every year if he had the benefit of the current CL qualification rules.

Don't get me wrong, however. Both Evans and Houllier failed as Liverpool managers.

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