Houllier at Villa

[Shaggy]

Anyone think he'll last the season?

Gérard Houllier asserts his authority at Aston Villa by sending four senior players to reserves

By Sandy Macaskill 7:00AM GMT 16 Dec 2010

Gérard Houllier might have shown his softer side by giving his Aston Villa players two days off after their victory over West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, but the Frenchman has reasserted his will over four senior players with whom he has had arguments in recent weeks by sending them to play in the reserves.

Richard Dunne, John Carew, Habib Beye and Stephen Ireland — who have all fallen foul of their manager since his arrival in September — were made to play against Leicester City reserves in a behind-closed-doors practice match at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training complex on Wednesday, which ended 2-2.

Although club officials would suggest that there is nothing out of the ordinary in asking players to take part in midweek practice games, it is unusual for senior players such as Dunne, who has been stand-in captain in the absence of Stiliyan Petrov, to feature in a competitive game just three days before a Premier League fixture.

Also playing were Nigel Reo-Coker, who is still searching for match fitness after recovering from injury, Robert Pires, 37, and Nathan Delfouneso.

One source told Telegraph Sport: “It was almost their first team. Pires, Dunne, Ireland, Carew. Dunne was good, Ireland was very good. Carew played almost an hour. Very surprising.”

Villa play Wigan on Saturday, and with the number of injuries his side have already sustained this season, and indeed their precarious league position (four points outside the relegation zone), Houllier can ill afford any more losses.

[-V-]

That is a total non-story. 2 of those 4 players have been injured and need match practice, 1 is playing rubbish these days and the other is always on the bench. So really all of those need the practice.

But about him, on here we all called it about how he would struggle and they made a mistake going for him. He is indeed struggling and the fans are turning on him big time

[Shaggy]

Fans hate him nearly as much as we hate Hodgson.

Hasn't taken Ged long to start falling out with people has it

[-V-]

Aye he shot himself in the foot with his behaviour at Anfield. Villa fans were going absolutely ape**** after that

Randy Lerner won't stand by and do nothing though, if he doesn't start climbing the table he'll be gone too. Could be a busy xmas because Avram Grant will be getting sacked soon and you have to worry for Roberto Martinez and Mick McCarthy too

[Shaggy]

Aye he shot himself in the foot with his behaviour at Anfield. Villa fans were going absolutely ape**** after that

Randy Lerner won't stand by and do nothing though, if he doesn't start climbing the table he'll be gone too. Could be a busy xmas because Avram will be getting sacked too and you have to worry for Roberto Martinez and Mick McCarthy too

Could be a merry-go-round. Be funny as **** if Allardyce ends up at West Ham. Surely the owners aren't that stupid - their fans will go ****ing ape****.

Shame Hodgson isn't welcome at Blackburn.

[-V-]

The hammers defence is abysmal though, Allardyce might actually be the one guy who could save them. They need someone who will abandon all football ideology and turn them into a brutal physical defensive side.

We all know the natural course of events though, he'll be hired and he'll maybe keep them up (I doubt it though) but 12 months down the line the hammers fans will start threatening to kill him and he'll be duly sacked. Suppose it will be fun to watch

[The Erectile Banana]

It's amazing how quickly Houllier has lost the Villa fans.

His outpourings are making Roy look like Henry Kissinger.

[Arn]

He did the same when he was our manager. He played first team players in the reserve team to keep them match fit and to punish them.

That is his way to do things.

[dww]

I think it is an odd one as Villa have been losing young players and failing to convert good league starts into better final positions for a few years. I think they needed someone with the sort of experience that Houllier has had to go in and knock some heads together. The trouble is without bringing in a few of his own players he has struggled.

There are a lot of comparisons with the Roy situation. The difference is that Roy got his choices of signings and they didn't help, Houllier will probably get a bit of a chance in January. If he fails to get a bit of a bounce then I think he will go before the end of the season.

[Baracus]

Fans hate him nearly as much as we hate Hodgson.

Hasn't taken Ged long to start falling out with people has it

No other way to describe it

[Rich]

I think it is an odd one as Villa have been losing young players and failing to convert good league starts into better final positions for a few years. I think they needed someone with the sort of experience that Houllier has had to go in and knock some heads together. The trouble is without bringing in a few of his own players he has struggled.

There are a lot of comparisons with the Roy situation. The difference is that Roy got his choices of signings and they didn't help, Houllier will probably get a bit of a chance in January. If he fails to get a bit of a bounce then I think he will go before the end of the season.

Are you suggesting that Houllier will be signing an non-playing French midfielder to spy on his team mates?

[Nick77]

it's amazing how quickly houllier has lost the villa fans.

his outpourings are making roy look like henry kissinger.

basil!!!

[Arn]

Are you suggesting that Houllier will be signing an non-playing French midfielder to spy on his team mates?

That signing was a classic. £3m if I remember things right

[-V-]

Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has denied reports of a major player rebellion at Villa Park.
Houllier has had a troubled start to his Villa reign, not helped by suggestions that the playing squad are unhappy with his training methods.
And Richard Dunne was reportedly involved in a training-ground row after being dropped at the weekend.

But Houllier said: "I've read about dissent in the squad over training methods but it is not true."


"I know it is different to what it was before but it is not true and the players will adapt gradually.
"We do a lot of work with the ball, we play a lot of games, we do some tactics as well.
"Do people have to adapt to a new manager and methods? In a way, yes. You adapt or you die. We are changing a lot of things and that upsets the comfort of some players.

"I am not going to talk about the players who are dissenting and not happy. Any manager who runs a team knows the players who are playing are happy, and the players who are not playing are not happy.
"They think the methods are not good and they think the manager is not the right person but we have to live with that.

"We know that we are changing things, we know that sometimes people are whingeing and moaning but they have a fantastic job.

"They are paid high wages to play and enjoy football. This is a fantastic job and sometimes you forget that."

The 63-year-old Frenchman has had a difficult time since taking over at Villa Park in September following Martin O'Neill's shock resignation in August.
His side have struggled for results, a 2-1 victory over West Brom on Sunday halting a run of three league defeats, while Houllier was forced to clarify comments which angered fans following the 3-0 defeat by his former club Liverpool.
And it was reported during the week that Dunne reacted angrily to being dropped for the West Brom game and being stripped of the club captaincy.

I had a lot of players who either had not played for a long time or needed a game

But Houllier said: "There was not an incident with Richard Dunne. Not at all. I took a football decision not to play him and [Carlos] Cuellar came in and did extremely well and he will be playing against Wigan [on Saturday]."

And Houllier insisted that playing some of his out-of-favour senior players in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Leicester was not a punishment but was intended to help them maintain match fitness.
"It is not a punishment when you play a behind-closed-doors game to help players keep their fitness," he added.
"It is a punishment when you don't play at all, when you are left out, but I had a lot of players who either had not played for a long time or needed a game to restart like Nigel Reo-Coker.
"We wanted to have that game. We would probably have done it a week or two earlier but because of the snow we couldn't do it so it was an ideal opportunity to have it with Leicester.
"Robert Pires, John Carew, Nathan Delfouneso, Stephen Ireland; all those not involved for a long time played that game. Some we gave 70-80 minutes, others played the full game.
"It was just an ideal means of training and keeping the match fitness because the problem is the reserves don't have many games and, because of the weather, a lot of games have been called off."

[Norbs]

Could be a merry-go-round. Be funny as **** if Allardyce ends up at West Ham. Surely the owners aren't that stupid - their fans will go ****ing ape****.

Shame Hodgson isn't welcome at Blackburn.

Hodgson at West Ham has a cwacking ring to it though