Gerard Houllier

[Jah Womble]

Liverpool were very decent around that time and a shade unfortunate not to overhaul Arsenal in 2002.

Losing at White Hart Lane in April wouldn’t have helped, so apologies for that.

[Belhaven]

One of the first things Houllier did when he took over Liverpool was to tell Paul Ince to go and play with the reserves. I remember I thought that was a brilliant thing to do.

[torres]

I’d have told him to go and play in a different country.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'd have told him to go and play on the M6.

[G-Man]

I’d have told him to go and play in a different country.

Ferguson did that already.

Toby; Harsh but fair.

[Sean of the Shed]

I presume we're all ignoring the huge elephant in the corner there swigging that can of energy drink?

[Antepli Ejderha]

I presume we're all ignoring the huge elephant in the corner there swigging that can of energy drink?

?

[Heliotrope]

Another thing about him was that story in Popbitch about his allegedly dancing around his back yard with the UEFA Cup.

[Uncle Ethan]

Lovely tribute from Danny Murphy doing the rounds on Twitter.

[Sean of the Shed]

?

The last eight years of his career, and indeed life, has been spent as head of football for Red Bull and their global stable of clubs. As career choices go it's about as appealing as the drink itself.

[Sporting]

The last eight years of his career, and indeed life, has been spent as head of football for Red Bull and their global stable of clubs. As career choices go it's about as appealing as the drink itself.

I understand where you're coming from but do you think that this completely sullies the memory and reputation of a decent man?

[Sean of the Shed]

I understand where you're coming from but do you think that this completely sullies the memory and reputation of a decent man?

Completely sullies? Your words, not mine and not what I was trying to say.
The point that I am making is that the tail end of his career, and a substantial part at that, hasn't even been mentioned yet it has been spent at a franchise that has come in for massive criticism here and throughout the international football community. A career choice such as that should not be ignored, even in a posthumous tribute thread. It is possibly a black mark on the career of someone who may well be an otherwise decent man and should bear discussion and indeed criticism in the same way as the issue of domestic violence was discussed on the Maradona thread.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Always seemed a nice (and interesting) man but was almost always succeeding at clubs I didn't like, so the Red Bull coda doesn't make much difference to me

[Sporting]

Completely sullies? Your words, not mine and not what I was trying to say.
The point that I am making is that the tail end of his career, and a substantial part at that, hasn't even been mentioned yet it has been spent at a franchise that has come in for massive criticism here and throughout the international football community. A career choice such as that should not be ignored, even in a posthumous tribute thread. It is possibly a black mark on the career of someone who may well be an otherwise decent man and should bear discussion and indeed criticism in the same way as the issue of domestic violence was discussed on the Maradona thread.

Sorry for misinterpreting you; wasn't meant.

[ooh aah]

I think describing Ginola, who was a young player at the time, as the criminal of the team was really poor form, especially as it was Gerard's tinkering with team tactics in the final two games which were primarily responsible for their failure to qualify. But I think that was very much an exception, and as Liverpool manager he was more gracious than the vast majority of managers at top teams over the last 20 years.

[Sean of the Shed]

Sorry for misinterpreting you; wasn't meant.

Don't worry about it. No biggie.

[Benjm]

Rather embarrassingly, my response to reading the energy drink post last night was to double check that Houllier hadn't overlapped with John Barnes at Liverpool.

[Lang Spoon]

The football was awful if sometimes effective, the signings often worse, but aye, a decent man. Couldn't care less about his work with Red Bull in the scheme of things, I do wish he'd never given that cast iron cunt Phil Thompson a job though.

[3 Colours Red]

Benjm They didn't but it was closer than I remembered - Barnes only left for Newcastle at the start of the '97/'98 season. In my head, he'd left Liverpool a year or two earlier than that.

[Benjm]

Ian Rush was still club captain in 1995-96 which is somewhat later than I would have guessed.