Houllier taking on the fans - That's what finished him
Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 9:05 pmIn my humble opinion THE VERY first thing every Liverpool fan should do is say thanks:
To a decent man who gave his all. To a leader whose commitment, passion and desire to take their team back to the pinnacle of European football could not be questioned.
To a disciplinarian who revolutionised the players' training, preparation and lifestyles.
To a workaholic who tore the lining of his heart in pursuit of re-uniting the words Liverpool and glory. And who, for five very special days in May three years ago, did precisely that.
But when the thanks to Gerard Houllier are done, those fans should thank the board for doing what the Frenchman himself did to Paul Ince, Sander Westerveld, Robbie Fowler, Markus Babbel, Jari Litmanen, Nicolas Anelka and Emile Heskey. Ruthlessly discarded sentiment and told them their time at Anfield was up.
It's not cruel, it's not unfair, it's not even football. It's life at the top of a world-famous sporting institution which generates more than £100million-a-year, and which for two years has been sliding backwards.
Statistics, as Houllier frequently reminded us, rarely lie. And these were the ones which ultimately mattered.
He took over a team six years ago which had just climbed from fourth to third, lying 13 points behind champions Arsenal, and he promised the Premiership within five years.
Not only did he fail to achieve that, he oversaw Liverpool's removal from the top three, and left them battling for fourth place, 30 points behind Arsenal, and nearer relegation than the title.
Houllier's slick five-year plan had become his managerial suicide note.
Yesterday, he implied that it was pressure from media critics and former players which got him the sack. It wasn't. It was the fans.
They remembered his declaration when he signed, in 1998: "Liverpool finished third last season, and that would be considered a good achievement by many. But not by us. We have to improve the team and reach out for top place."
They contrasted that with his words in this season's final match programme, that finishing fourth was a "massive achievement". And it didn't add up.
They watched an uninspiring, one-dimensional style of play,and deemed it so unacceptable Anfield ceased to attract full houses. And that didn't add up in the boardroom. Fans brought up on winning football played with fluency, speed of thought, passion and movement, were watching losing football bereft of those qualities.
And when the Kop started to register their frustration, by chanting "attack, attack, attack", Houllier committed the fatal error of attacking them. "Supporters should support," he said. "I don't know why they were moaning."
Houllier was not just questioning the Kop's loyalty, but its knowledge of football.
And that's when the hard-core minority who still fought his corner on the Kop and in the boardroom stopped doing so. Instead they questioned Houllier's own wisdom.They contrasted his poor foreign buys with Arsene Wenger's, they tired of the excuses which saw everyone blamed but himself and the bizarre trotting out of match stats aimed at convincing the ignorant masses that they had not been watching the same game as him.
Fans and board feared another poor summer in the transfer market, followed by another poor season of excuses, with Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard being lured to clubs who aspire to coming first, not fourth. And the chairman was steam-rollered into submission.
Having criticised David Moores, I commend him for looking beyond a friendship and doing the best thing for everyone concerned. Liverpool was crying out for change. Not just new money to compete with the top three, but a new leader with new ideas.
As for Houllier, every Liverpool fan will genuinely wish him well. Overall he struck the kind of chord with them which very few men do. Hopefully he will go down in Anfield folklore as someone who laid the foundations for a new era of success.
Had he not come back from heart surgery though, he might possibly have gone down as a legend to be mentioned in the same breath as Bill Shankly.
That 11-hour operation and its after-effects were the turning-point in Houllier's reign. He returned to Anfield with an air of invincibility.
In the final reckoning it wasn't Houllier's utterances but his poor judgement of players which did for him. He spent more than £100m and, with a few exceptions, it was wasted on too many heartless journeymen.
ynwa
To a decent man who gave his all. To a leader whose commitment, passion and desire to take their team back to the pinnacle of European football could not be questioned.
To a disciplinarian who revolutionised the players' training, preparation and lifestyles.
To a workaholic who tore the lining of his heart in pursuit of re-uniting the words Liverpool and glory. And who, for five very special days in May three years ago, did precisely that.
But when the thanks to Gerard Houllier are done, those fans should thank the board for doing what the Frenchman himself did to Paul Ince, Sander Westerveld, Robbie Fowler, Markus Babbel, Jari Litmanen, Nicolas Anelka and Emile Heskey. Ruthlessly discarded sentiment and told them their time at Anfield was up.
It's not cruel, it's not unfair, it's not even football. It's life at the top of a world-famous sporting institution which generates more than £100million-a-year, and which for two years has been sliding backwards.
Statistics, as Houllier frequently reminded us, rarely lie. And these were the ones which ultimately mattered.
He took over a team six years ago which had just climbed from fourth to third, lying 13 points behind champions Arsenal, and he promised the Premiership within five years.
Not only did he fail to achieve that, he oversaw Liverpool's removal from the top three, and left them battling for fourth place, 30 points behind Arsenal, and nearer relegation than the title.
Houllier's slick five-year plan had become his managerial suicide note.
Yesterday, he implied that it was pressure from media critics and former players which got him the sack. It wasn't. It was the fans.
They remembered his declaration when he signed, in 1998: "Liverpool finished third last season, and that would be considered a good achievement by many. But not by us. We have to improve the team and reach out for top place."
They contrasted that with his words in this season's final match programme, that finishing fourth was a "massive achievement". And it didn't add up.
They watched an uninspiring, one-dimensional style of play,and deemed it so unacceptable Anfield ceased to attract full houses. And that didn't add up in the boardroom. Fans brought up on winning football played with fluency, speed of thought, passion and movement, were watching losing football bereft of those qualities.
And when the Kop started to register their frustration, by chanting "attack, attack, attack", Houllier committed the fatal error of attacking them. "Supporters should support," he said. "I don't know why they were moaning."
Houllier was not just questioning the Kop's loyalty, but its knowledge of football.
And that's when the hard-core minority who still fought his corner on the Kop and in the boardroom stopped doing so. Instead they questioned Houllier's own wisdom.They contrasted his poor foreign buys with Arsene Wenger's, they tired of the excuses which saw everyone blamed but himself and the bizarre trotting out of match stats aimed at convincing the ignorant masses that they had not been watching the same game as him.
Fans and board feared another poor summer in the transfer market, followed by another poor season of excuses, with Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard being lured to clubs who aspire to coming first, not fourth. And the chairman was steam-rollered into submission.
Having criticised David Moores, I commend him for looking beyond a friendship and doing the best thing for everyone concerned. Liverpool was crying out for change. Not just new money to compete with the top three, but a new leader with new ideas.
As for Houllier, every Liverpool fan will genuinely wish him well. Overall he struck the kind of chord with them which very few men do. Hopefully he will go down in Anfield folklore as someone who laid the foundations for a new era of success.
Had he not come back from heart surgery though, he might possibly have gone down as a legend to be mentioned in the same breath as Bill Shankly.
That 11-hour operation and its after-effects were the turning-point in Houllier's reign. He returned to Anfield with an air of invincibility.
In the final reckoning it wasn't Houllier's utterances but his poor judgement of players which did for him. He spent more than £100m and, with a few exceptions, it was wasted on too many heartless journeymen.
ynwa
