Gerrard Houllier

Ant · October 30, 2012

I remember walking out of the ground v Newcastle May 2004. We had just secured 4th place, Michael Owen had scored his last goal in front of the Kop, and we have finished 30 Points behind the eventual champions Arsenal.

I turned to my mate and said 'I'd be happy if Houllier stayed to be honest', despite the fact I was a massive critic at the time. He was staunchly defended by some, but in the end many had lost their faith in him, and both parties amicably parted ways. It's 10 years more or less since really you could say it went wrong for Houllier, some point to the Bayer Leverkusen game, though my memory is of Boro away and listening to it on the radio.

Ultimately the 2002/2003 transfer window was the turning point in terms of the direction of the club, though after seeing Bruno Cheyrou play like Zidane in a friendly v Lazio, and Diouf and Diao come back from a successful World Cup, there was plenty of optimism though that was soon to be eroded.

If Benitez put us back on the top of European Football, it was surely Houllier who gave us our pride back in an historic treble winning season, the job that almost cost him his life, he produced some fantastic memories which only get better with age. As someone who was a critic, I actually look back on the Houllier error with fond memories, I'm more prone to discuss the Michael Owen Cup Final, Cardiff 2003 etc rather than dwell on the bad-times which to be honest that I really can't remember well at all.

Mellwood as we see it was built in his image, although it was evolved, the modern facilities where part of his image. We must not forget that his team of Sammy Lee and Phil Thompson where really a force. Thompson himself having a decent spell as manager when Houllier took ill.

His influence is there to see even today, in Gerrard and Carragher. Even those who have departed recently such as Finnan, Hyypia, Riise, Hamman. Instrumental in our success, where all brought in or molded by Ged, something not many give him credit for.

I think history looks back upon his time here with great fondness, he fell in love with the club and as I said before, gave the club it's pride back. Dion Fanning said that we would look back upon the Benitez years as being a 'Golden Age', I suppose now we can truly say the same was the case with Houllier.

Bigal · October 30, 2012

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