Liverpool’s manager – if he could make it here, he could make it anywhere
David Barnes
The passion for Liverpool football that Grard Houllier took into the enemy stronghold of Old Trafford recently was kindled long before he signed on the dotted line of his contract.
Thanks to the testimony of one of his closest and most enduring friends, his love and respect for all things Anfield can be traced to a magical evening in the Liverpool stadium and a few beers with their fans almost two decades ago.
And, oddly enough, what one-time Polish international centre-forward Joachim Marx has to say locates French intellectual Houllier, a former teacher of English, in the same area of working-class values that drive Sir Alex Ferguson, his Manchester United rival in that classic North-West showdown.
Marx, who won a gold medal with Poland at the 1972 Olympics, was down to play against England at Wembley the following year in the World Cup qualifier that still has echoes of national regret. Domarski, who took his place when Marx was injured in a league match a few days before, scored the famous goal that eliminated England.
Marx later moved into French football where he eventually ended up at the little mining town of Noeux-les-Mines where Houllier, three years his junior, was trying to secure his first toehold in the game.
Houllier’s ambition was, in part, fired by afternoons watching Liverpool when he was a young teacher gaining experience on Merseyside in the late Sixties. But this was different, now he was earning his living from the game.
Marx now says: “Let me tell you first about Grard and Liverpool because it is really like a fairy-tale that has come true. After he made his name with Noeux- les-Mines, Grard was made coach of the First Division club Lens and made me his assistant. We wanted to sign a Polish player, Smolarek, of Widzew Lodz, who were due to play the return leg of a European tie against Liverpool at Anfield in 1983.
“I got tickets for the game through my Polish connections. I could see from the start that something was getting to Grard. He seemed very excited about something. The football, of course, was fantastic. Liverpool won 3-2, but it was not enough because they had lost the first leg 2-0 in Poland.
“There was something else, though. It was the noise, the passion, the red-brick stadium, the little working-class houses all around. Grard was spell-bound by the whole thing. We were from an area of industrial France where poor miners had the same feelings for the game and their team.
“We went to a pub nearby after the game and drank a few beers. No one, of course, knew who Grard was even though he was a top coach in France. He talked football with the fans just like he was one of them. What really impressed him was that, whereas an eliminated team got whistled in France, these supporters were still 100% behind their team.
“As we left the pub, Grard made a remark to me that I have never forgotten. He said: “You know, Joachim, I would love to be the coach of this club one day.” I honestly believe Grard never lost that dream and I am convinced that he will make Liverpool the champions of English football before he leaves them. “Smolarek, by the way, was too expensive and later played for Eintracht Frankfurt but, as it has turned out, it was no wasted trip for Grard.”
The first Kop that Houllier encountered in football was a cone-shaped hill that rises with improbable steepness behind the tiny ground of Noeux-les-Mines in northern France. It is, in fact, an old slag heap – now covered by grass. Georges Blondel, groundsman at the time, says he can still remember seeing Houllier pull up at the ground on his moped in search of a job coaching the juniors.
Even now, the most prominent team picture in the club’s cramped quarters features Houllier alongside the provincial part-timers he turned into celebrated giantkillers on a national scale.
Marx, capped 27 times by Poland and twice a winner of their championship with Ruch Chorzow, recalls: “Grard was given the first team job after they had been relegated. They were in a bad way. He wasted no time in totally rebuilding the team and won promotion during his first season in charge.”
“A lot of people wondered whether Grard had made a mistake in buying so many new players for Liverpool at the same time, but it is not the individuals who count so much for him. He would rather have two players who understand each other than one big star. Whatever the level of football, he has always known what he wanted.
“He thinks only of the collective. What he has done at Liverpool, he already did at Noeux-les-Mines. The only difference is he knows more players, better ones and has the money to get them now.
“Grard gave me a three-year-contract to sign for Noeux-les-Mines from Lens when I was 35. The town has 13 000 inhabitants, there were average gates of just 800 people and, to get 5 000 in, we had to erect a temporary metal stand behind a goal.
“We did our training three evenings a week, running all over the slag heap which served as a free vantage point for some fans on match days. What happened there in Grard’s time was simply phenomenal. Our ground would not hold the people who wanted to see us in really big cup ties.
“We had to go to Lens to play those. There were 15 000 there to see us beat Nantes in the French Cup and 30 000 watched us lose narrowly to Paris St. Germain the next round. Can you imagine? I was used to big crowds, of course, but Grard spent most of his time teaching English to sixth- formers in Lille; we had electricians and car mechanics in the team.
“Some of us worked for Bernard Leroy, the club president who owned a chain of shops. I was a salesman in the kitchen furniture department for two years. They were great days. Grard’s own keenness and excitement spread through the team.
“But he hardly ever slept. He once explained to me that he had picked up the habit as a student reading his books all night. It was funny, he would drop into my house for a chat, sit on the settee and say, “Give me five minutes.” Then he would immediately fall asleep. His eyes would open five minutes later and we would start talking football. He used to drive my wife mad when he rang up in the middle of the night.
“He would send me to watch the opposition for him and he could never wait until I saw him to get the information. He was hungry for knowledge.
“He was especially strong on analysing the opposition. There were some who did not believe in him at first because he had not been a footballer, but he soon changed their minds.
“When the president was killed in a car crash, the money dried up at Noeux-les- Mines and Grard was picked up by Lens. He took them to fourth place in the First Division and European football before winning the championship with Paris St Germain.”
Houllier retains a natural courtesy not always apparent in the vigorous hurly-burly of premiership football, but Marx, now established in the schools coaching set-up de- vised bylll Houllierll in hisllll timell with thel Frenchl Football Federa-l tion, can bearll witness toll the steelylll nature thatll lies within.
There is now only one boss at Liverpool since Roy Evans was pushed off the tandem and one Guvnor – as England star Paul Ince, who styled himself thus – discovered to his anger and dismay.
Marx adds: “I knew Grard was having problems with Ince and I also knew there would be only one outcome.
“When I joined Grard at Noeux-les-Mines, another player from Lens came with me. He kept telling Grard he was a pro and so knew better. He disagreed with Grard in the dressing-room. It was not long before he was no longer there.”
Liverpool were champions on that March night of destiny when Houllier watched them go out of the European Cup at the quarter- final stage at Anfield.
He has a clearer picture of his progress towards restoring them to that status after that Old Trafford encounter with the team he dreams of supplanting.