Houllier's Liverpool

Gerard Houllier returns to Anfield on Monday night, and you can be sure it will be painted as the return of a fan favourite by he press. The return of the last succesful manager Liverpool have had, the man who signed the players who won Liverpool our 5th European Cup. A manager so good that he didnt even need to actually lead Liverpool to becoming European Cup champions, he just built up a squad which was so brilliant that even Rafael Benitez couldnt help but lead them to glory. Djimi Traore, Harry Kewell and Djibril Cisse were proof of that.

The facts are that Houllier did achieve much as Liverpool manager and this shouldnt be forgotten, even though my sarcastic tone may rankle with many I do still have respect for the fact that Houllier was very important in restoring our reputation in world football. He turned us around at a very important time, when we were in terminal decline and changed the culture of our club and made us more professional from top to bottom. He won for us three competitions in 2001, The UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup and brought joy to a place were none had been seen for a long time. However, we must also remember that that is where the success story ends. After that we had to put up with some of the most boring football ever seen at Anfield (until Roy's appointment of course) we had to put up with players wearing the Liverpool shirt on the pitch who should not even have been allowed to wear replica shirts when playing 5-a-side with their mates. We had to bear witness to Robbie Fowler being bombed out of the club he loved in unceremonious fashion, by which he wasnt even given opportunity to say goodbye to the fans who he adored and who adored him so. He left behind an ageing, poor quality and ill diciplined squad of players who had little or no resale value... but when some of these players were lifted enough by a stronger manager to reach the maximum of their potential to win the European cup the press sent kudos in the direction of Houllier, disregarding the fact that none of these players ever looked like European champions when led by the Frenchman.

I've decided to write this REALLY SHORT article just to help any fans who, led by the press over the next few days, may remember Houllier's reing purely through rose tinted glasses.

Dion O'Bannion wrote an amazing article in the Irish Independant which explains things even better than I can manage here (If you can imagine that), its definitely worth 5 minutes of your time, please click on the link below to read:

LINK