Liverpool FC Forum

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:13 pm

I am a supporter of his leaving,
But, honestly now I'm sad
Once again, all the best Monsieur Gerrard Houllier
Thanks for the cups.

by **ICE-MAN** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:17 pm

im sad to see him go and feel he should have been given one more season in charge, i disagreed with some of his work but felt he was a good manager, in my eyes he's been a success!

BUT WHAT NOW?

next year we have to see liverpool struggle to get 4th again as we undergo a rebuilding process and then owen n gerrard will want out if were not doing well, i feel this was the wrong decision

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:20 pm

Houllier exits Liverpool

Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier has parted company with the club after six years as manager

The Reds directors ended Houllier's reign even though he satisfied their target of steering the club to fourth spot and into the Champions League.

Charlton's Alan Curbishley and Rafael Benitez of Valencia are favourites to take over from the Frenchman.

BBC Sport understands Celtic's Martin O'Neill is not among the frontrunners to succeed Houllier.

Houllier's exit adds to the uncertainty caused by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra trying to buy into the club.

Thaksin is due to fly to England shortly to continue negotiations over a £60m bid for 30% of the Anfield club.

The Thai PM became the sole bidder after the Liverpool board blocked millionaire Liverpool fan Steve Morgan's attempt to plough £73m into the club.

Morgan had been a fierce critic of Houllier, however, and the pressure he put on the board cannot have helped the Frenchman's cause.

Houllier, a former France coach and technical director of the French Football Federation, moved to Liverpool as joint-manager alongside Roy Evans in July 1998.

by **ckay** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:22 pm

OK, for arguments sake lets say he stay's next season ( I know he's just been sacked ). We have another poor season Stevie G and Owen leave, GH gets saked and a new manager comes in to rebild the club without our best two players. Or, he goes now ( which he has ) and we rebuild around Stevie, owen and Ciise.

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:26 pm

Houllier bids emotional farewell

After all the speculation, and despite his own insistence that he would still be in charge at Anfield next season, Gerard Houllier's reign as Liverpool manager today came to an end.
Chairman David Moores and his board did not give public backing to the manager after he achieved the "minimum requirement" of Champions League qualification by finishing fourth - a full 30 points behind champions Arsenal.

Houllier insisted he would take many great memories away with him from Anfield, where he has been manager since 1998.

"I arrived here six years ago as a Liverpool supporter and I leave as an even bigger supporter," he said. "I may have left Liverpool, but Liverpool will not leave me. I will return to watch the team as a fan.

"I have four special memories that I take away with me," the Frenchman told the club's website, http://www.liverpoolfc.tv.

"Michael Owen scoring the winner against Arsenal with his left foot [in the FA Cup final], Gary McAllister being handed the Man of the Match award against Alaves [in the UEFA Cup], the mosaic when I was recovering from heart surgery and Steven Gerrard taking his daughter around the pitch on the last day of the season."

Houllier arrived at Anfield in 1998 and three years later led the club to five trophies. The Premiership title, however, and the status fans had come to expect of their club, seemed only to get further and further from their reach. Liverpool have only one league cup trophy to show for their toil since that 2000-01 season.

In his six seasons in charge Houllier has spent more than £128m on transfer fees, but with names like El-Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Igor Biscan and Nicky Barmby accounting for £26.5m of that and only £45m recouped in sales, it is easy to see where the board might feel the Frenchman has gone wrong.

Chief executive Rick Parry said: "After considerable thought and discussion the board have decided to part company with the manager and Gerard has accepted this with typical good grace.

"We have always said we would review our position at the end of the season and that is what we have now done.

"Although we have reached the Champions League that is a minimum standard and not a goal.

"For a variety of reasons the board decided that change was necessary if we were to realistically challenge for the title next season."

Parry added: "But this is not a day for anger, recrimination or speculation. It is a day for dignity and respect and I want to publicly thank Gerard for his considerable achievements during his time in charge.

"We all have very fond memories of the historic treble and the other trophies won but there were many other special occasions and I will personally never forget the reception given to Gerard after he returned from illness for the Champions League game against Roma.

"We had many good times together."

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:30 pm

HOULLIER LEAVES LIVERPOOL

Gerard Houllier has officially parted company with Liverpool after weeks of intense speculation regarding his position at Anfield.
Houllier's future has been the subject of intense speculation in the last week as the club prepare for next season.

The Frenchman spent six years with the Merseysiders and overcame a serious heart problem to lead the team to a cup treble in 2001.

However, despite clinching fourth spot in The Premiership and earning a chance to play in next term's UEFA Champions League, the Reds board have decided that the time is right for change at the helm of the club.

Liverpool finished some 30 points behind champions Arsenal and there will now be plenty of anticipation over who will succeed Houllier.

The Frenchman admitted he was sad to be leaving Anfield, but that he was heading out with may special memories from his time on Merseyside.

"I have four special memories that I take away with me. Michael Owen scoring the winner against Arsenal with his left foot, Gary McAllister being handed the Man of the Match award against Alaves, the mosaic when I was recovering from heart surgery and Steven Gerrard taking his daughter around the pitch on the last day of the season," Houllier told the club's official website.

"I arrived here six years ago as a Liverpool supporter and I leave as an even bigger supporter. I may have left Liverpool, but Liverpool will not leave me. I will return to watch the team as a fan."

The search will now begin for Houllier's replacement with the likes of Celtic's Martin O'Neill, Charlton's Alan Curbishley and Valencia coach Rafa Benitez all thought to be among the board's top targets.

by **LFC #1** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:30 pm

I hope Mourinho hears this and snubs Chelsea, he would be great.

by **82-1074641017** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:38 pm

Same here, I wanted him to be removed as manager, but I do feel sorry for him, if anyone deserved success it was him.
It is a sad day but he did bring us a couple of good years(something we never have) where we were a good team but in the end he took us as far as he could.
He did love the club though, but it was time for a change.
I wish him the best of luck in the future for whoever he manages

Roberts

by **stmichael** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:48 pm

well done to the board for resolving this matter in the most amicable way possible. i was expecting them to make another b#lls-up of it. houllier gave me some of the greatest memories of my life as a liverpool supporter and i am extremely grateful to him for that. however the last two seasons have unfortunately proved that the manager was short when it came to what mattered most- winning the league.

all the best gerard

ynwa

by **ivor_the_injun** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:48 pm

And now that he's gone, let's not forget that he HAS taken the club forward. We were going nowhere in the mid-to-late 90s, and he's given us silverware and a taste of Champion's League football, for which we should be eternally grateful.

Yes, we should be in the top 3 challenging for the title. Yes, we should be attracting every big name that comes onto the transfer market. But - dead wood aside - look at the squad we've got and the money we've got available. This is a football club that is going places. We took a step backwards last season, and a step sideways this term, but whoever takes over is going to inherit something very special indeed.

For god's sake - a huge club with 2 world class goalkeepers, 5 quality international defenders, several quality midfield players (including arguably one of the best players in world football right now in Gerrard), 1 world class striker and 1 up-and-coming international star, a few rising teenage stars and some of the best facilities you'll find anywhere in the world has a managerial vacancy. If you were a football manager with half a brain, you'd want that job.

This is not a club in trouble. Move players that aren't performing on, bring in between 3 and 5 new faces, freshen things up tactically and we'll be ****** laughing.

Houllier - thanks for the memories, and all the best for the future. 2001 was one of the most memorable years of being a Liverpool supporter that I've ever had, and he can definitely hold his head up high in my book. I just hope he turns up for the first home game of next season to get the ovation he deserves.

by **stmichael** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:54 pm

ivor_the_injun wrote:This is not a club in trouble.

couldn't agree more. i don't think we have gone backwards under houllier, i just think that the likes of arsenal and chelsea have improved unbelievably this season for different reasons.

can you honestly say that chelsea would have been 20 points ahead of us if we had beaten them on the last day of last season. abramovic might never have shown up had they not been in the hampions league.

the club is actually in one of it's healthiest states for a while in terms of revenue and money to spend. the new manager will obviously have his own ideas of who he wants to bring in. this appointment of a new boss is the MOST important decision that the board have ever had to make.

i trust their judgement.

by **dawson99** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:02 pm

we all bitch when hes here, then say good luck when he goes... true fans
(thats not sarcasm)
We want the best for our club and he did do a lot for the club but recently just hasnt been doing it
so good luck, fair well AWW revoir!

by **Paul C** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:17 pm

I think it was for the best that GH left but I still think he's a great bloke, he left with some good quotes "I may have left the club but the club will never leave me"

Good Luck Gerard, You'll Never Walk Alone!!

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:32 pm

Where did it all go wrong?

So where did it all go wrong for Gerard Houllier, backroom architect of France's World Cup and Euro 2000 triumphs? He arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 1998 billed as the man with the experience and coaching genius to restore Liverpool to their former glories. No league title since 1989-90 had ended the reigns of Graeme Souness and Roy Evans. Houllier was going to be different, with the clout, knowledge and respect of Europe to restore Liverpool to their former glories. It worked for a long while. Progressing from seventh to second in four seasons was a hard-fought achievement. The next step - winning the title - is so much harder.

Where Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have scored big in their careers is in the transfer market, something Houllier never quite cracked. After an initial flurry that saw Dietmar Hamann, Sander Westerveld, Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise and Jerzy Dudek sign, the quality level dropped. Houllier tried to put his French knowledge to good use but while Wenger prospered with Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka and Thierry Henry, Liverpool were frustrated by the likes of Djimi Traore, Gregory Vignal and Bruno Cheyrou. Manchester United spent big to lure £19million Ruud van Nistelrooy, but a year later Houllier spent just £400,000 less than that to attract El-Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao and Milan Baros to Anfield. And when injuries on the current scale have bitten into the squad, the back-up has not been good enough, certainly not good enough for Liverpool. Houllier has spent nearly £130m and claimed back around £60m - decent business over five years - but he soon discovered he could not trust the bit-part players.

Success for Arsenal and United had come via expansive attacking football, but Liverpool's dour, cautious approach hardly helped attacking talent find its feet. Ironically, it was that style which won them their six trophies under Houllier, but as the criticism got worse, he opted for a more open system at the beginning of the recently-completed season - and discovered the cracks in his defence. Hyypia lost form, Dudek made too many mistakes, Hamann was injured and Riise became erratic. Injuries were particularly costly. Michael Owen's regular absence robbed Houllier of his prime attacking threat while Harry Kewell was persistently 'missing' when needed most. The loss of their Champions League place just over a year ago, and the projected £20m that brings, hit Houllier's transfer budget hard.

Kewell and Steve Finnan were the only well-known summer arrivals, with French teenagers Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Antony Le Tallec being hopes for the future. While Chelsea have ripped up the rulebook with over £100m worth of new faces, Liverpool have suffered most. They cannot compete with money that big, hence the somewhat embarrassing hawking of the club around the Far East. Steve Morgan's three attempts to induce a shares and rights issue has failed to impressed chairman David Moores who has no intention of backing himself into a corner that could see him lose control of a club his family have run for 30 years or more.

Manchester United have their youth resources, money and stature, to at least offer some resistence to Chelsea while Arsenal are living off the knowledge of Wenger and the battery of super talents he has developed at Highbury. Liverpool and Houllier have not been able to do that, and Morgan was quick to point out that the Gunners' success has been achieved on the same sort of budget as Houllier has had.

by **anfieldadorer** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:40 pm

No quick fix, Houllier tells Reds

Gerard Houllier today warned his successor at Liverpool that there will be 'no quick fix' to get them back to the top of the English game.The Frenchman parted company with the Reds today after six years in charge, during which time he won six trophies. However, it is the failure of Houllier to keep the club in the running for the title that has cost him his job.Liverpool have not added to the last of their 18 league titles in 1990 and finished 30 points behind Arsenal last season. Alan Curbishley, Martin O'Neill, Rafael Benitez and Gordon Strachan have been linked with the now vacant post, but Houllier believes whoever comes in will have a tough job on their hands to break the stranglehold of the Premiership's top three.

'The club is in my heart. It is one of the most fantastic clubs in the world,' he said. 'But the club needs to consider its roots and understand that it cannot always have a quick fix.' The Frenchman revealed he was prepared to stay, but insisted 'excessive pressure' concerning his future was having a negative effect on the club, and that it was best if he left.

'I want to make clear how much the club means to me. I had intended to carry on my job but the reason we have agreed to part company is mainly because of the sudden excessive pressure on the board and myself,' he said. 'The pressure is something I can cope with, though some of you have tested me over the last 10 months,' he said.

'But I thought it could be harmful for the players in next season's campaign and I also thought that it could jeopardise their performance and achievement. That's why we have agreed to come to this situation. 'The club comes first, I'm not here for myself, I'm here for the club. The club will always come first for me

'The club has meant six years of happiness for me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the players who have achieved so much, and to the fans for their support.'

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