Gérard Houllier appointed new Aston Villa manager
As expected, former Liverpool boss Gérard Houllier has returned to English football with Aston Villa.
The 63-year-old Frenchman – who managed Lyon for two years after leaving the Reds in 2004 – takes over from caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald, who had been in charge ever since Martin O’Neill quit the club a month ago, on the eve of the new season.
Houllier has left his post as technical director at the French Football Federation to move to Villa Park, and is looking forward to his new challenge.
“I could not turn down the opportunity to manage a club whose approach, both on and off the pitch, I have long admired,” he said.
“Aston Villa is one of England's biggest clubs and has an amazing set of fans. This is a tremendous challenge and one I am very much looking forward to taking on.”
A former France international manager, Houllier famously won the treble of League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup with Liverpool in 2001, as well as the League Cup again two years later, but he needed life-saving heart surgery when he fell ill at half time of a match against Leeds United at Anfield in October 2001. He won league titles in both seasons he managed Lyon, in 2006 and 2007.
Having set out the criteria for a new boss – one with Premier League experience and the knowledge of how to work with young players – Aston Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner was delighted with the appointment.
“Two of the key qualities which we identified as being of crucial importance in our search for the new manager were experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on the existing strengths in our current squad,” he said.
“Gerard Houllier comfortably satisfies these criteria. He understands the ethos of our club and shares our core values.”
The Frenchman will be formally presented to the media at a news conference on Friday, and will take charge of his first Premier League match in six years at Stoke City on Monday night.
The length of Houllier’s contract is not yet known, and neither is the future of MacDonald, who stepped up from the position of reserve team manager following O’Neill’s resignation. Villa won two of his three Premier League matches in charge, but did lose 6-0 to Newcastle United and were knocked out of the Europa League by Rapid Vienna.
Phil Thompson, Houllier’s former assistant at Liverpool, will not be joining the Frenchman at Villa Park, having decided to continue his work as a television pundit.
http://www.senore.com/G%C3%A9rard-Houllier-returns-to-a-country-that-loves-football-almost-as-much-as-he-does-a26125
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