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Gerard Houllier won a cup triplet with Liverpool in 2001
Gerard Houllier, who died at 73, may have been destined to run his beloved Liverpool Football Club.
Houllier arrived at Anfield on a jointly managed ticket with incumbent Roy Evans on July 16, 1998, but the seeds of his arrival were sown 30 years earlier when he was in the Kop watching Bill Shankly’s great Liverpool while teaching French at the nearby Alsop Comprehensive. School.
He deserves to be remembered as the man who had the strength of character and talent to revolutionize Liverpool, making them successful once again when he took sole control after the inevitably unworkable arranged marriage with Evans came to an end four months later.
- Former Liverpool boss Houllier dies at age 73 tributes and reaction to Houllier’s death
Houllier’s arrival in Liverpool was the brainchild of Anfield’s great manager and CEO Peter Robinson, through an established friendship over many years.
Robinson immediately thought of Houllier when it was decided to revamp the club’s coaching structure.
The man known at Anfield as ‘PBR’ admitted he was on “a fishing expedition” when he contacted Houllier, who had been heavily linked with Celtic and Sheffield on Wednesday after working with the World Cup winning team. from France in 1998.
She called, apparently to congratulate him on a job he hadn’t even taken, while insisting that it would be a mistake to consider moving somewhere other than Anfield.
Houllier, unaware that such a vacancy existed, jumped at the opportunity and it’s no exaggeration to say that he subsequently worked on a brilliant transformation from the rugged ‘Spice Boys’ era in developing a fiercely disciplined winning team.
I was fortunate to be the first journalist to meet Houllier after his arrival at Anfield and it was the beginning of a personal friendship that revealed that he was not only a perfectionist and passionate about football, but also a warm, generous and completely decent.
Robinson called the Liverpool Echo offices that morning in July 1998 and said, “There is someone in my office that I think you would like to meet.”
No clues were given, but when Robinson issued the summons, you acted and after a short trip to Anfield the office door swung open to reveal a beaming Gerard Houllier clearly overjoyed.
He was Liverpool’s new “joint manager” and expressed his excitement at coming to Liverpool before saying, “I have to go now. I want to get to Melwood to meet my new family.”
And so he treated Liverpool Football Club. It was his family. He defended her with passion and wanted the best for her at all times.
The soccer world was fascinated by Houllier’s association with co-coach Roy Evans
As this is a very personal memory, there are many stories that confirm his humor and his fervent desire to be a winner at Liverpool, something that ultimately took its toll on his health.
Shortly after their arrival, the Liverpool Echo was running a somewhat harsh promotional campaign that consisted of posting large images of journalists on the back of buses, with inevitable consequences and insults.
Houllier greeted me once at Anfield with a smile and the words: “I stopped behind your face at a stoplight yesterday. Not a good sight in real life, but at that size and while I’m driving … are you trying? harm Liverpool Football Club? “
He set out to remove dominant influences like Paul Ince and Neil Ruddock from the Liverpool dressing room in search of a team in his image and likeness.
Houllier formed what might be called a two-man “transfer committee” with his ally Robinson, resulting in discussions that regularly dragged on into the wee hours of the morning.
Officials at other clubs were often surprised to receive calls at midnight and beyond asking about the players. The decision had been made on a signing and the coach, along with one of the best managers the game has ever known, wanted the ball to start rolling.
Sami Hyypia, Stephane Henchoz and Dietmar Hamman arrived, followed later by magnificent acquisitions such as Markus Babbel and Gary McAllister.
Houllier was also instrumental in injecting even more professionalism and focus into the veins of prominent young men like Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.
If anyone doubts the influence Houllier had on Liverpool when he was there and afterwards, ask those iconic figures how well they regarded him.
It took some time to get it right and there were times when his 24/7 approach to Liverpool rears its head.
When Liverpool drew with Manchester United in March 2000, Houllier was distraught to replace the injured Hyypia moments before half-time with Liverpool leading the way. He waited, Manchester United tied and the match ended 1-1.
The phone rang in my apartment at 7am the next morning and I overheard my future wife Lynne, whom Houllier knew was a Liverpool fan, engaged in a lengthy discussion about non-substitution and its implications.
Wrongly assuming he was a family member, it was a shock to hear that the caller was Houllier, who had been up all night in Melwood, worried about what he considered a bad decision that had cost Liverpool a historic victory. .
He wanted the perspective of the fans, as well as the journalist, as befits a man who chose to live in the Sefton Park area of the city, as he wanted to be among the fans so that he could see and hear what they felt.
Houllier was in charge of the France team but failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup
As Euro 2000 approached, I was asked if Houllier would do a tournament preview piece for the new BBC Sport website, which I assumed would be a traditional fee for winners and dark horses.
Houllier seized the opportunity, but insisted it couldn’t be done over the phone. We had to meet in person at Melwood at 7pm.
Upon arrival, Houllier produced an inch-thick handwritten preview detailing each team, key players, and potential weaknesses.
Patrice Bergues, Houllier’s friend, assistant and a reassuring presence who often spoke up some of his most outlandish ideas, stood behind the Liverpool manager out of his eye line smiling with outstretched arms.
I knew there were no half measures when asking Gerard Houllier to talk about football. Sadly, restrictions on space meant that much of his meticulous dossier went unnoticed.
It was fitting that Houllier was in his element inside Liverpool’s Melwood training venue. Not only did he rebuild the Liverpool team, he also rebuilt the bricks and mortar of the ramshackle training ground.
Houllier continued the process started by Graeme Souness in modernizing the facilities, taking almost paternal pride in offering a guided tour, some areas designed for his specific demands, including the lack of pillars so that no player could hide behind them.
Attention to details. Everywhere. No margin too fine.
2001: Owen scores two goals in the Liverpool final to win the FA Cup
And it all materialized gloriously in the 2000-01 season in which they won the treble, when Liverpool beat Birmingham City on penalties to win the League Cup, Arsenal to win the FA Cup and Alavés 5- 4 through a ‘Golden Goal’ to win the Uefa Cup.
It was just a reward for the endless hours Houllier spent at Melwood and around the world searching for ideas, potential new players, powering up those he called his “family.”
Houllier’s Liverpool was at its peak.
He was at the top of his game, a high-class team was emerging, but it paid the price when he became seriously ill during a game against Leeds United at Anfield in October 2001 and required 11 hours of heart surgery.
On the orders of doctors, they told him to stay away from soccer and to put his thoughts away from the game. Two things he found impossible.
Phone calls were heavily rationed when he recovered at home, but when the jokes were made soon they were talking about Liverpool and football again.
And sometimes reporters, understandably, who were asked to avoid contacting him found themselves on the receiving end of calls asking why they hadn’t reached out.
He retained the personal touches even in convalescence, special occasions for journalists and associates such as the birth of a child who still receives a large bouquet of flowers and a card.
Houllier insisted on a professional relationship with everyone he dealt with but never forgot the personal side.
Accepting himself that he came back too soon from his serious illness as Liverpool manager, he returned in March 2002 on a tide of excitement from Anfield for a 2-0 Champions League win against Roma.
The safe touch was not quite there, an unusual mistake of replacing anchor Hamann with forward Vladimir Smicer with Liverpool en route to qualification in the quarterfinals against Bayer Leverkusen contributing to a late elimination.
Houllier’s signings also started to go bad, especially when he passed Nicolas Anelka, who had excelled in a loan deal at Liverpool, and signed El-Hadji Diouf.
He won the League Cup once again against Manchester United in Cardiff in 2003, but Houllier’s time at Liverpool was running out despite the same Herculean efforts and tireless work ethic that was in his DNA.
Houllier had his flaws, notably a hypersensitivity to some justified criticism from former players, but this was perhaps due to his own frustration that the big hits and the Premier League title he so desired were nowhere in sight.
Gerard Houllier reflects on Liverpool’s iconic Istanbul win
He was fired at the end of the 2003-04 season, but it was sadly everywhere. It left Liverpool in fourth position and in the Champions League.
It remained a source of great pride that Liverpool won the trophy against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005 with many of the players they left behind and whom they had so carefully guided.
Even after his departure, he remained fiercely loyal to Liverpool and its supporters despite facing criticism for his style of football in his final days.
Houllier’s time at Aston Villa, where he was appointed in 2010, was also limited by health concerns, but he once again became a very popular figure with those who treated him.
Houllier returned for a second chance in the Premier League with Aston Villa in 2010
However, it was his time and his successes at Liverpool for which he will be best remembered.
Over the years, Houllier has earned the most credit he deserves for work that reached beyond the cutlery to truly change a culture.
Houllier was still seen at Anfield, often on European nights. The respect and affection he was feeling were still obvious, the greeting with the bear hug was still warm and friendly.
Gerard Houllier was an outstanding coach and a good and decent man that we will very much regret.
Source: bbc.com
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