Gerard Houllier to take over at troubled Aston Villa
Gerard Houllier, the former Liverpool boss seems like the favorite to replace Martin O’Neill as the Aston Villa manager, sources close to the club revealed.
The 63 year old manager left the Reds about six years ago and is employed by the French Football Federation as a technical director, after a short spell with Lyon which ended in 2007. There have been reports that Houllier was interviewed by Randy Lerner, the Aston Villa owner and the manager was thought to have created a nice impression on his possible future American multi-millionaire employer.
If the deal goes through, then Houllier could sign a contract with Villa as early as next week, hopefully before the fixture on September 13 against Stoke City.
After interviewing candidates for the vacant position, Villa have become desperate to find a manager who would stabilize conditions at the club, following their poor results in the opening fixtures of the Premier League. Kevin MacDonald, who took over temporarily when Martin O’Neill resigned, is also being considered for the permanent position, but Houllier seems to be the leading contender.
Houllier is highly respected within the game, but the 62 year old has suffered heart problems recently and with the way things are going at Villa, the job is at the least, stressful. Keeping that in mind, Houllier and MacDonald could be set to work together. This would be an excellent opportunity for both the men, especially MacDonald, who has so far failed to impress in the five games that he has been in charge of Villa.
Houllier started his managerial carrier as a youth coach for Arras. He then moved to Noeux-les-Mines as a head coach and managed two consecutive promotions for the team into the second division. He then went on to manage Lens in 1982, he managed to get the team promoted enough to get them qualified for the UEFA Cup. He then went on to manage PSG where he won his first honours by lifting the French title.
Houllier was appointed as the assistant to the French national team in 1988 under Michel Platini. He eventually went on to become the manager of the national side in 1992 but by 1993 he resigned from being the manager of the side but continued to be a part of the team, as their technical director.
In July 1998 Houllier was invited to become a joint manager at Liverpool along with Roy Evan. It was a rather bizarre arrangement and it seemed to not workout as Roy Evans went on to resign in November of the same year.
Houllier however stayed on and saw the potential that the team possessed. He went on to rebuild the team for the coming two seasons. His efforts however did not go un rewarded. In the 2000-2001 season Liverpool went on to win a cup treble. The treble included the League Cup, FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. The team even went on to win the Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup against Bayern Munich under the manager.
Houllier however didn’t see much success after that. The team only managed one more Football League Cup under the manager in the 2002-2003 season. Houllier was eventually asked to leave the club in 2004 after the officials at the club felt that the team could do better without him.
In 2005 Houllier was appointed as the new manager of Olympique Lyon. The team was already doing well domestically so the manager was brought in to help the team do better in the European competitions. That was not the case as the manager did manage to get Lyon far, but not as far as was expected of him. He did however manage to win the League with Lyon for two consecutive seasons before finally leaving in 2007.
The manager will be expected to bring the same domestic success that he has had with his teams in the past. Considering Houllier has already co managed a team before he might be able to be the best man around, to fill in the position of manager at Aston Villa.
However whether or not the manager gets the job will be decided in the near future, since Aston Villa are currently manager less and struggling, the deal is expected to be completed sooner rather than later.
Tags: