Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:20 pm**

John Barnes' Granny wrote:I have always been a massive fan of Martin O' Neill and I have followed his career very closely. He is a very ambitious man and I think that while he is enjoying himself at Celtic he is privately frustrated that the club is playing in a weak league and he has little money to spend. I think that he is holding out for a big job in England, a big club like Liverpool or Man UTD which would give him the opportunity to pit his wits against the best in Europe.

People should remember that O' Neill is refusing to sign a long term contract at Celtic and instead he does a season to season deal. This can only point to him wanting a move back south.

A few clubs have shown interest over the last few years, such as Leeds and Spurs, but I think O' Neill wants one of the big jobs. My only fear is that I have a sneaking feeling that he has his eye as Alex Ferguson's successor.

I believe that O' Neill would win the League for Liverpool within two or three years. I have that much faith in him. His man management is second only to Alex Ferguson.

martin o neill will be the next man united manager, simple as. that's why he's turned down every post offered to him over the past few years.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:24 pm**

do ya think he would accepted the liverpool job?

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:24 pm**

Good thread to bring back, i remember Heysel disaster aside from terrible human tragdey it certainly was i think the event which put firsts cracks in the Red empire.
Not sure about the FA Cup 88 result as we never did have best of record in that during 80s unless we were playing the blues. It was that lost to the gunners in 89 to lose the championship which really hit me as a supporter of the club since late 70s it was unthinkable as i was used to the league title being wrapped up by Christmas.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:27 pm**

yeah when you look back in history it really is shocking how low we have fallen as a club, hopefully those days will come back

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:27 pm**

Fowler_E7 wrote:do ya think he would have accepted the liverpool job?

i don't understand the question. he sued a paper for claiming that he had already accepted it so the answer is obviously no.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:29 pm**

thats because houllier was still in the job, and i dont think he's the type to stir media gossip, i think he would have taken the job if offered.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:27 pm**

That was one of my first threads (embarassement).

I stand largely by it: Liverpool were in a very bad state last October and the depression on these boards was unreal. Only Stu, and to a lesser extent, Daglish, stood up for Houllier (although I think Stu joined in January in a blaze of controversay

).

I think most people that criticised Houllier back then were former Houllier supporters but had simply been worn down by a year of poor results and poorer form.

I think my warning in this thread is still appropriate, if Benitez fails we could be in huge trouble in the long term. However, things look rosier at the moment given Benitez' pedigree in Spain, and there's always optimisim when a new manager is brought in.

I like Mr. Benitez and his record is amazing, but I hope to God that I'm not back on this forum next October writing a similar post to this one on him!

As for O' Neill, myself and Owzat had a fair amount of scraps over him, although even if Napoelon himself was to lead Liverpool (with Jesus as his assistant) Owzat wouldn't have been happy!

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:31 pm**

i liked owzat. he made some very good points (even though there were a lot of stats). however he condemned o'neill as average, saying "what has he proved". the fact is the guy is the most sought after manager in britain due to his amazing motivational and man-management skills.

shame he's going to the scum.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:33 pm**

i think old alex will be around for a few years yet

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:53 pm**

Ferguson won't go unless he's pushed.

You can see him there thinking: I'll hang around and make Rooney, Ronaldo etc great players.

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:19 pm**

Just a thought like but what are peoples preidictions over rooney failour at manure or sucess personally I think hes believed his own hype ok he did have a good euro 2004 but there were better players around him throughout the whole team. whereas ok the scum got a few good players but no Stevie G or Lampard givin him service. I would have liked for him to become successfull being a fellow scouser an that but he sh#t on everton badly even if they are our rivals I dont hate them as much as I hate the scum, if he would have stayed at everton for about 2-3-4 years what ever id have had respect for him and would have wished him luck but not that sly ****** trick he pulled on them :glare:

Posted: **Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:27 pm**

The thing is can you really blame the lad for leaving the bitters because he has ambitions and wants to achieve them. People can say he should have given them more service but what will he achieve by that? Its not like Everton are going to make the CL and thats where the top players should be. My verdict, as much as i hate to say it, is that he will be a big success there because he is a top quality player.

Posted: **Fri Sep 10, 2004 12:25 am**

John Barnes' Granny wrote:I stand largely by it: Liverpool were in a very bad state last October and the depression on these boards was unreal. Only Stu, and to a lesser extent, Daglish, stood up for Houllier (although I think Stu joined in January in a blaze of controversay ).

My "support" of Houllier was largely done as a reaction to teh utter disdaina nd contempt shown to the man on here more than his ability to take us further.

History will be kinder to Gerard Houllier than many many fans have been.

I watched the 2001 UEFA Cup final on video last week whilst feeding the Baby in the middle of the night and it brought back great memories.

Less than 6 months later Houllier was having life saving surgery and was lucky to survive. Whether it was a congenital defect or the strain of the job you can't help but admire the way he dealt with the whole thing and his return on a balmy night against Roma is up there in my list of memories of Anfield.

Your original post regarding the demise of LFC was largely accurate in my opinion but you missed the effect that Hillsborough was to have on LFC as a club and Kenny Dalglish in particular.

Although we were booted out of Europe after Heysel we still had a world class side but post Dalglish we started to underachieve and went into freefall with the appointment of Souness. Evans, although a trier fared no better and Houllier in my opinion gave us something we had lacked for a decade ....belief. Ultimately the weight of expectatuion that belief brought was to cost him his job (A decision I didn't disagree with by the way).

So we find ourselves in 2004 with a proven manager and what looks like on paper a quality squad.

We await the next chapter in the long history of Liverpool Football Club............Walk on

Posted: **Fri Sep 10, 2004 4:50 am**

Guys, in actual fact, Liverpool FC has not undergone a demise as a big club, rather, we have misses on the commercial opportunities as we have not had enough successes in the CL especially which yields a lot of benefits like exposure, tv revenues and merchandising.

In this respect, I think a continuous participation in the CL every season is necessary and we need to go beyond the group stages without necessarily winning as we don't have a strong enough squad yet for that. Also, we need to keep improving in the EPL and close the gap considerably this year. Next season, we should be genuine contenders.

To expect Benithez to deliver the title straight away when he has not familiarity with the EPL before this, is an impossible target. I believe he can take us to the summit. Just have a bit of patience with him.

Posted: **Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:45 am**

I agree with everything you say Daglish.

My original post came at a time when things were continuing to go badly wrong after a year of poor form and many, including me, actually stood by Houllier in 2002/03 as I believed (wrongly as it turned out) that the poor run of that season was a speedbump in our development and I thought Houllier would turn it around in 2003/04.

I had just come back from Greece on a holiday after watching a few dysmal performances on satellite while on holiday and the atmosphere was terrible. Houllier had become increasingly paranoid with the press and old players and Parry and Moores were sending out signals that they were prepared to stand by Houllier no matter what.

It was plain as day that things were going disasterously and I thought the club was committing suicide by continuing to support a proud man whose methods were no longer working.

I have faith in Benitez and recognise that he has a lot of work to do and needs time, but my original post is still largely appropriate, I think.

Liverpool FC Forum

Demise of a great club