by THEBARON » Mon May 24, 2004 9:39 pm
The decision today was a cruel necessity.
I agree with St Michael that the signs of things coming off with the rails started with the substitution in Germany , from then on it got gradually worse and worse. The treble probably gave Houllier an inflated view of his progress and judgement of players.Certainly his transfer dealings in the summer of 2002 contributed to his downfall. We invested heavily on Diao , Diouf and Cheyrou and got little back in return. At the same time we passed on Anelka , let Wright and Litmanan leave and lost some creativity in midfield with Mcallister , Redknapp and Barmby all leaving.
Since the summer of 2002 the only real plus points were the unbeaten start to the league and a memorable visit to Cardiff.
On the debit side we crashed out of the champions league at the 1st group stage , lost to a lower league in the FA cup at home with a player advantage , got knocked out of Europe by a Scottish team for the 1st time in our history and finished 5th.
Houllier followed that up with 4th place this season ...yes an improvement on last season but a major dissapointment nevertheless. Does 30 points behind the leaders and 3 poor cup runs constitute progress ?
Ultimately the board have seen sense and finally made the right judgement call. Houllier's passion and commitment cannot be questioned but the results were not goodf enough.
We were going backwards on the pitch and becoming a laughing stock.
It is sad given that in the summers of 2001 and 2002 his position looked untouchable.