[Sport] Gerard Houllier: 'A fine decent man, destined to manage Liverpool'

[Shyloo]

Gerard Houllier: 'A fine decent man, destined to manage Liverpool'

 

Gerard Houllier, who has died aged 73, may just have been destined to manage his beloved Liverpool Football Club.

Houllier came to Anfield on a joint-management ticket with incumbent Roy Evans on 16 July 1998 - but the seeds of his arrival were sown 30 years earlier when he stood on the Kop watching Bill Shankly's great Liverpool side 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 revolutionise Liverpool, making them successful once more when he took sole control after the inevitably unworkable arranged marriage with Evans came to an end four months later.

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Houllier's arrival at Liverpool was the brainchild of the great Anfield administrator and chief executive Peter Robinson, through a friendship established over many years.

Robinson immediately thought of Houllier when it was decided to revamp the club's coaching structure.

The man known to all at Anfield as 'PBR' admitted he was on "a fishing expedition" when he contacted Houllier, who had been heavily linked with Celtic and Sheffield Wednesday after working with France's World Cup-winning team in 1998.

He rang, ostensibly to congratulate him on a job he had not even taken, while insisting it would be a mistake to consider moving anywhere other than Anfield.

Houllier, not realising such a vacancy existed, jumped at the opportunity and it is not stretching the point to say he subsequently worked a brilliant transformation from the flaky 'Spice Boys' era into the development of a fiercely disciplined, winning team.

I was fortunate enough to be the first journalist to meet Houllier after his arrival at Anfield and it was the start of a personal friendship that revealed him to be not only a perfectionist and driven football obsessive but also a warm, generous, thoroughly decent man.

Robinson rang the Liverpool Echo offices that morning in July 1998 and said: "There is someone in my office I think you might like to meet."

No hints were given but when Robinson issued the summons you acted and after a short drive to Anfield the office door opened to reveal a beaming, clearly overjoyed Gerard Houllier.

He was Liverpool's new "joint manager" and poured out his emotion at coming to Liverpool before saying: "I must go now. I want to get to Melwood to meet my new family."

And that is how he treated Liverpool Football Club. It was his family. He defended it passionately and wanted the best for it at all times.

 

As this is a very personal recollection, there are many stories that confirm his humour and all-consuming desire to be a winner at Liverpool, something which eventually took its toll on his health.

Shortly after his arrival, the Liverpool Echo was running a somewhat heavy-handed promotional campaign which involved plastering large images of journalists on the back of buses, with inevitable consequences and insults.

Houllier once greeted me at Anfield with a smile and the words: "I pulled up behind your face at a set of traffic lights yesterday. It is not a good sight in real life but at that size and while I am driving… are you trying to damage Liverpool Football Club?"

He set about removing overbearing influences such as Paul Ince and Neil Ruddock from Liverpool's dressing room in search of a team in his own image and likeness.

Houllier formed what might be termed a two-man "transfer committee" with his ally Robinson which resulted in discussions that regularly went into the early hours.

Officials from other clubs were often startled to receive calls at midnight and beyond inquiring about players. The decision had been taken on a signing and the manager, along with one of the finest administrators the game has known, wanted the ball to start rolling.

In came Sami Hyypia, Stephane Henchoz and Dietmar Hamman, to be followed later by superb acquisitions such as Markus Babbel and Gary McAllister.

Houllier was also instrumental in injecting even more professionalism and focus into the veins of outstanding youngsters such as Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.

If anyone doubts the influence Houllier had on Liverpool when he was there and also afterwards, just ask those iconic figures how highly they regarded him.

It took some time to get it right and there were occasions when his 24/7 approach to Liverpool reared its head.

When Liverpool drew at Manchester United in March 2000, Houllier had agonised over replacing the injured Hyypia moments before half-time with Liverpool leading. He waited, Manchester United equalised and the game ended 1-1.

The phone rang at my flat at 7am the following morning and I heard my future wife Lynne - who Houllier knew to be a fanatical Liverpool fan - involved in a lengthy discussion about the non-substitution and its implications.

Mistakenly assuming it to be a family member, it was a shock to hear the caller was Houllier who had been up all night at Melwood fretting over what he regarded as a poor decision that had cost Liverpool a landmark win.

He wanted the fan's perspective as well as the journalist's, as befitted a man who chose to live in the Sefton Park area of the city as he wanted to be in among supporters so he could see and hear what they felt.