{"id":1894,"date":"2020-12-14T14:44:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T14:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2020-12-14T14:44:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T14:44:51","slug":"rest-in-peace-monsieur-houllier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/rest-in-peace-monsieur-houllier\/","title":{"rendered":"Rest In Peace, Monsieur Houllier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a funny old thing, writing a blog. I do this once a week, so usually have to think about what I\u2019m going to write in order to get my timing right. I don\u2019t want to be publishing a piece on a Monday about Liverpool\u2019s fixtures if we\u2019ve got a game on Tuesday night, for example. This week I was considering waiting until after the match against Tottenham Hotspur in order to talk about both that game and our one against Fulham as a package. I also thought that maybe I\u2019d write one today, reacting to the Champions League draw. Of all the things that I\u2019d ummed and ahhed about, writing something about G\u00e9rard Houllier never entered my head. In many ways, I wish I didn\u2019t have to. I felt the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/sport\/football\/news\/roy-evans-phil-thompson-pay-23164809\">news of the Frenchman\u2019s death<\/a> like a gut punch, such is the extent to which he was <em>my<\/em> Liverpool manager. As a thirty-eight-year-old, I grew up watching his side.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Gutted by the news of Houllier\u2019s death. 2000\/01 was the first truly great season Liverpool fans of my age enjoyed, and he modernised a club that was in desperate need of it. RIP. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FWshfidCdR\">pic.twitter.com\/FWshfidCdR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BassTunedToRed\/status\/1338430207804452866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rafa Benitez might have been the one to put us back on the biggest stage of all, but I got my footballing education, appropriately enough, courtesy of the former teacher. In many ways, Houllier saw dreams come true. He had stood on the Kop and watched Liverpool when he was a teacher in the city. He very much got the club from the off, but he also understood football and the manner in which the club needed to be brought up-to-date. There was plenty to say about the appointment of Roy Evans as manager, including the fact that he probably should\u2019ve been given the role when Graeme Souness was appointed. He was a man of his time, however, and the need to modernise the club was one that was probably beyond his capability. Houllier knew what was needed and how to do, laying the foundation for the Reds to become the club they are today.<\/p>\n<h2>He Laid The Foundations<\/h2>\n<p>Bringing G\u00e9rard Houllier in as a joint-manager with Roy Evans was a decision that never should have been made. Those in charge of the club at the time probably didn\u2019t have the heart to sack Evans after everything he\u2019d done, but the idea of co-managers was never one that was going to work. A clean break would\u2019ve been best for both people, but once Houllier took sole charge of the club he was able to begin to implement his own ideas and thoughts. It was the first time I can actively remember the idea of someone trying to implement a \u2018five-year programme\u2019 at a football club, which is something that most managers talk about nowadays. He had a specific sense of what needed to happen at Liverpool to drag the club into the twentieth century, including removing a vast swathe of the players who had been around for too long and were bad influences.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We are mourning the passing of our treble-winning manager, G\u00e9rard Houllier.<\/p>\n<p>The thoughts of everyone at Liverpool Football Club are with G\u00e9rard\u2019s family and many friends.<\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace, G\u00e9rard Houllier 1947-2020. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/isHGXIfe5E\">pic.twitter.com\/isHGXIfe5E<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liverpool FC (@LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\/status\/1338436839166910465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He was also the man who modernised Melwood, turning it into a modern-day training centre rather than clinging on to the olden days of the boot room. He broke up the cliques in the dressing room, bringing in some fresh blood and doing what needed to be done to make us competitive again. Football is always evolving, so I\u2019m quite sure that we\u2019d have ended up where are now at some point no matter what. Yet there\u2019s no denying that Houllier was the man who laid the foundations for what Liverpool Football Club has become. You can trace a direct line from the Frenchman\u2019s time at the club through to J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s, with the former teacher bringing us into the modern era quicker than we would have done if he\u2019d never been appointed. He was the definition of a forward-thinking manager and would almost certainly have won us a title if not for Manchester United\u2019s dominance.<\/p>\n<h2>He Made Us Relevant Again<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to forget now, but Liverpool had almost fall off the map in the 1990s. The title that came at the start of the decade was thought of more as being the end of the 1980s, whilst the FA Cup in 1992 was dismissed because of Graeme Souness\u2019s otherwise miserable reign. There\u2019s a reason why the thrilling matches against Newcastle United are remembered so fondly, which is that there was very little else for Liverpool supporters to get excited about during the era. Instead, we had to watch Manchester United become the biggest and most successful club in the country, whilst we struggled to lay a glove on them. Even beating them seemed to be a struggle. Houllier\u2019s brand of football might not have been the sexiest that we\u2019ve ever watched, but it was successful. Decisions to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/2896\/premier-league\/2010\/12\/06\/2247358\/gary-mcallister-the-most-inspired-liverpool-signing-by\">bring in the likes of Gary McCallister<\/a> might have seemed odd, but proved to be inspired.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">G\u00e9rard Houllier &#8211; one of the most important figures in French football history and one of the most important figures in Liverpool\u2019s recent history. The man who instigated the 2001 treble and revitalised the club at a crucial, critical time.<\/p>\n<p>RIP boss. &#x1f534; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3LEe1TPIK5\">pic.twitter.com\/3LEe1TPIK5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SachinNakrani\/status\/1338427022616506370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Personally, the 2000-2001 season will forever be my favourite as a Liverpool fan. We\u2019ve won the European Cup and the League since then, but that was the season that I came of age as a supporter. I remember where I was for each of the finals. I know how I felt watching Michael Owen slot the ball past Arsenal. I still feel slightly confused about the Golden Goal in the match against Alav\u00e9s to hand us the UEFA Cup. G\u00e9rard Houllier gave me those moments and I\u2019ll never forget them. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/football\/premier-league\/the-results-that-sank-houllier-564536.html\">the right time for him to leave the club<\/a> in the end and in Rafa Benitez we could a manager who could pick up where he left off, but we might not have even been able to entice the La Liga winner if Houllier hadn\u2019t put the club back on the map again. The modern version of Liverpool Football Club has always revered its managers, but for those of us of a certain age, today\u2019s loss feels even more poignant.<\/p>\n<p>Rest In Peace, Monsieur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a funny old thing, writing a blog. I do this once a week, so usually have to think about what I\u2019m going to write in order to get my timing right. I don\u2019t want to be publishing a piece on a Monday about Liverpool\u2019s fixtures if we\u2019ve got a game on Tuesday night, for example. This week I was considering waiting until after the match against Tottenham Hotspur in order to talk about both that game and our one against Fulham as a package. I also thought that maybe I\u2019d write one today, reacting to the Champions League draw. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}