Back To The Future

I think the writing’s pretty much on the wall if you’re being interviewed for a job you’ve already got.

So one sunny day, after discussing his club's last outing with its first team coach, Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner walked out of his office and strode back in again, before sitting down behind his desk. In front of him, fumbling with his fingers and trying hard to look serious, was seated Aston Villa first team coach Kevin MacDonald. The Scot had a wry smile on his face, whilst the look in his eyes was almost pained.

‘So Kevin,’ said Randy, narrowing his eyes and trying to look professional, ‘what draws you to becoming manager of Villa?’

Trying hard to avoid the word ‘erm’, MacDonald shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

‘It’s a big club with a great tradition…er…and with the right backing…’

Lerner’s eyes squinted sharply before MacDonald quickly added:

‘…which the club already has, it can go on to become a force in world football.’

Hilarious isn’t it? But can anyone possibly imagine a more unlikely scenario?

I can!

This week the Villa faithful and the rest of the football world choked on their cheerios when it surfaced that Gerard Houllier was taking up the hotseat at their club. ‘Gerard Hou?!’ must have been a common quip amongst the good folk of Birmigham. Talk about a blast from the past! After having to be interviewed for a job he already had, Kevin MacDonald was at least kept on board as reserve team coach.

Personally speaking, it’s a bit of déjà vu, which would have been a double serve had Phil Thompson given up his job at Sky and rejoined Gerard. Houllier had completely slipped from my radar except for his encounter with AC Milan as Lyon manager. And since he left Liverpool in 2004, he’d become yesterday’s man in everyone’s reckoning except for the French.

Besides the worthless cup final win over Manchester United in 03 (what a goal by Gerrard), you’d have to look back to 2001 for a memory of Houllier lifting any English or European silverware. Most would probably agree that, besides securing Lyon’s fifth and sixth Ligue 1 victories (but failing to bring them the champs league which was why he given the reins by Jean-Michel Aulas all along), 2001 remains the apex of Houllier’s club career. And it probably remains the only treble that Liverpool FC will secure in the foreseeable future, bar a sudden revelation that IKEA’s owners have treasured a long-held desire to own the Reds.

So it was with a twinge of nostalgia that I received the news of his appointment, recalling the finals that lead to the treble nine years ago when Pool somehow managed to scrape past Brum on penalties in the worthless cup final, got past the Arse through a miracle in the FA Cup final courtesy of two expert handsballs by Stephane Henchoz (the irony of seeing Thierry Henry protesting about them now!) and two late goals from Michael Owen. The cherry on the cake that season was winning the Useless cup courtesy of an Alaves player’s own 'golden' goal! It was surreal stuff for Liverpool supporters who hadn’t seen their club win any European silverware in almost twenty years. Houllier’s was only two years into his five year plan  and already the team (despite not capturing the imagination with their style of football) had won three cups in one season!

But 2001 was one of many false dawns in Liverpool FC’s stop-start past twenty years. When MacAllister left the club after the treble was won, many fans were left to wonder if the triumphs had only been down to the old Scot’s commanding performances in midfield. Houllier had seemed to be successfully dragging Pool into the modern age before he embarked on one of the most gut-wrenching and severely disappointing series of signings in living memory. Which stopped the Reds’ ascendancy in its tracks.

 

 

Hardly had the master of all bargains Arsene Wenger declared that one should not buy a player on the basis of his performances at a world cup that Houllier went on to sign Senegal’s world cup heroes El Hadji Diouf and Salif Diao. He also purchased Bruno Cheyrou, whom he openly heralded as the ‘new Zidane.’ All of these players put in underwhelming performances and I doubt anyone except tragics like me even recalls them at all! Signing these flops might have been forgivable, had they not added to the list of other flops Houllier had already signed like Biscan, Smicer, Titi Camara, Traore (the new ‘Desailly’ if you please!), Westerveld, Dudek, not to mention the hapless Sean Dundee and Eric Meijer, amongst others.

Despite their best efforts, these players greatly contributed to the depressing quality of football on show after the treble victory of 2001. Houllier’s tactics seemed reduced to having defence and midfield boot the ball up to big Emile Heskey’s head, who would try to get it into the path of livewire Michael Owen’s blistering runs. Question marks about Heskey also abound with Houllier himself selling him before Benitez’s arrival. Which would not make Heskey too chuffed about his old gaffer’s impending arrival at Villa.

Some might argue that a number of these players formed the spine of Rafa Benitez’s side which won the champions league in such dramatic fashion against AC Milan in 2005. But hardly had the trophy been lifted that Benitez began to sell most of the side that had just become kings of Europe. Never before in the history of football had a team which won the highest honour in European club football been disbanded so quickly! (and without a whimper of protest from the club’s fans) In fact the only player that survived this cull was Sami Hyppia, who was definitely Houllier’s best ever acquisition for Pool and probably remains the best bargain buy of all time. It is just such a pity that he was a one off.

During the treble winning season Houllier also seemed frustratingly incapable of harnessing the creative talent of coup acquisition Jari Litmanen. Although the ‘flying Finn’ always delivered when he wasn’t out injured, he was inexplicably hauled off or kept out of games in which he was desperately needed. These included the champions league quarter-final against eventual finalists Bayern Leverkusen in 2002 when Litmanen’s late introduction nearly turned the game around. Pool fans were left wondering what might have been had he been introduced earlier on.

Which is not to mention the problems Houllier ran into with God, which are well documented in Robbie Fowler’s autobiography. According to Fowler, Houllier was the type of guy who would stoop to any level to secure his stranglehold at Anfield, even going as far as to pressure journalists into giving lukewarm or bad reviews about Fowler’s exceptional performances throughout the treble season. This side of Houllier also raised its head in his later references to David Ginola and Rafa Benitez, amongst others.

I recall screaming at the tv set for Fowler to be brought on during games in 2001, which occurred later rather than sooner (if it occurred at all). Despite this, Fowler thwarted his manager by scoring countless times whenever he came off the bench before Houllier sold him to Leeds in November of 2001. To the relief of all Liverpool supporters, Houllier himself was sacked by Liverpool less than three years later.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Chelsea have leapfrogged Arsenal to rival Manchester United in what has increasingly become a two horse race for the title. This was mainly thanks to the Premier League’s biggest star Mourinho who has since left the Prem for pastures new. Liverpool remain a moody wild card which manages to secure fifth place in the league whilst bizarrely winning the champions league or FA Cup after being three goals down (Inter fans are in for an exciting time with Benitez).
 

 

And Houllier now finds himself back to having to build for the future, in the world of the Premier league whose landscape continues to change sharply. A world whose transfer market is dominated by Man City that now eclipse the likes of Chelsea's Abrahmovich for spending power. Liverpool will probably be Villa’s closest rivals, and if he can secure a snitch of the success with Villa which he secured with Liverpool during their treble winning season of 2001, Houllier will become a legend with Villa. But this is of course a pipe dream, which is why O’Neill quit the club. It is clear that Lerner is not going to be doing anymore big spending.

Appointing Houllier is a big gamble. How is a coach that clashed with Fowler going to see eye to eye with firebrands like Richard Dunne and Stephen Ireland? O’Neill is a coach who has a cultural background which would allow him to harness these Gaelic talents, but Houllier always demonstrated zero tolerance towards British players with a shred of personality during his time at Liverpool. Were it not for his winning of the treble, the Liverpool faithful would never have forgiven him for getting rid of British talents like Paul Ince, David Thompson, Stephen Wright, Stephen Warnock (also at Villa with Heskey), Dominic Matteo and ultimately Robbie Fowler, most of them players who were instantly snapped up by other clubs. All of this does not bode well for the majority of Villa’s playing staff, most of whom are British.

So what will Houllier really bring Villa besides a questionable capability in the transfer market? How can he improve on O’Neill overachievements of the last few seasons? That’s still open to debate, since the only addition to the squad has been Stephen Ireland which has arguably lost its best player in James Milner.

The jury is also still out on his tactical approach to games in Europe. He struggled against Italian opposition in the Champions League with Lyon, further adding to his mediocre track record in the competition. I still flinch when recalling Liverpool’s inept showings in the champions league under his tenure.

In short Houllier appears to be the Graham Taylor of French football, another guy who failed to get his country to the world cup and who returned to management with Villa before leaving after he claimed that he was unable to motivate the dressing room.

Will Houllier's reign have the same ending at Villa? He has still to win over its fans, who fear that like ‘Back To The Future’’s Dr Brown, he will send their club 30 years back in time. Something that Houllier said would happen to Liverpool when they gave him the sack, only for them to dramatically win the Champs league the following season without him.

I suspect that like Marty McFly in 'Back To The Future', Villa are going to be blazing a trail back into the past.