As Gérard Houllier hands back the keys to a great football club, it should be remembered that Anfield was a basket case when he arrived to join Roy Evans in a short-lived joint stewardship six years ago. Until the Frenchman walked through the front door of the club he had supported during his days as a student teacher, successive attempts to promote managers from within the family had gradually laid waste the legacy of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
The Liverpool dressing room, once a byword for iron self-discipline, had become a sort of pigsty, with some pretty unattractive noses in the trough. Evans himself, long the respected steward of Liverpool’s formidable reserve team, presided helplessly over the final stages of the decline, wringing his hands in dignified despair as his highly paid squad efficiently trashed a proud reputation for collective professionalism.
Houllier, armed with a degree of objectivity as well as a Koppite’s zeal, took charge of repairs and reconstruction to such effect that three years later the fans were celebrating a sudden shower of trophies. That none of those trophies was the European Cup or the league championship seemed, at the time, a mere trifle. Liverpool were back on the march, looking forward to regaining their once unquestioned place at the pinnacle of English football.
Towards the end of 2001, at half-time at Anfield in a match against Leeds United, a ruptured aorta almost killed Houllier, then aged 54. Eleven hours in emergency surgery were followed by five months of convalescence and a premature return to the dugout. He was acclaimed as a hero, his initials spelt out in a giant mosaic on the Kop, and when Liverpool stood seven points ahead of their nearest challengers in November 2002 he seemed assured of a place in the club’s gallery of legends.
The fall was swift and catastrophic. And over the past 18 months, as his team suffered a decline in the league and elimination from one cup competition after another, his personal reputation has been picked apart.
What was revealed is an authentic football man whose gift is for administration rather than coaching. In his 10 years with the French Football Federation, Houllier had his greatest success as the national technical director, in charge of the master plan that created the marvellous training centre at Clairefontaine and its regional satellites.
‘Coach the coaches,†was his watchword, and the enduring results of his work at the very foundations of the game could be seen earlier this month, in the brilliant France team that won the European under-17 Championship — the next generation of Zidanes, Henrys and Lizarazus.
As a national coach, his record was less exalted. He gave Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka their first representative experience at junior level. But when he took over the supervision of the senior side from Michel Platini, the disastrous failure to qualify for USA 94 — needing only a point from home games against Israel and Bulgaria, they lost both — led to the nadir of his career, when he called David Ginola’s mistake, which led to Bulgaria’s winner, ‘practically a criminal actâ€.
Great coaches find a way of shielding their players from blame in all circumstances, and Houllier’s self-exculpatory tendency was to surface occasionally when the going got tough at Liverpool.
His adventures in the transfer market attracted growing criticism, particularly when his buys were compared directly with those of Arsène Wenger. Contrast the contribution of Djimi Traoré with that of Gael Clichy, for example, or Salif Diao with Kolo Touré. The Arsenal manager also makes mistakes but is more adroit when it comes to recognising them as such and taking the necessary action.
Nor has Houllier ensured a steady flow of talent from the club’s expensively maintained academy. He recognised early on that local boys such as Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard provided the first-team squad with what he described as ‘a good Liverpool heartâ€, but there have been few signs of others graduating to join them.
It is in his inability to get established players to perform to their known maximum, however, that the deepest roots of his failure can be found. Emile Heskey, bought for £11-million and sold for £4-million at the age of 26, is the most obvious example; it will be no great surprise if he scores 20 goals for Birmingham City next season. El-Hadji Diouf, twice African footballer of the year but a nullity at Anfield, is another.
Milan Baros looks pretty good for Liverpool but twice as good for the Czech Republic. And how would the talented but fragile Bruno Cheyrou have fared had he found his way to Highbury rather than Anfield?
After the amicable departure of Gary McAllister deprived the side of a strategist, Houllier neglected to invest in a replacement. Steed Malbranque, whom he once described to me as ‘a little Giresseâ€, was allowed to settle at Fulham. Jari Litmanen, a gifted and experienced international No 10, arrived in 2001 but left a few months later complaining that he was never granted a sustained run in the side.
Perhaps one day Houllier will provide a satisfactory explanation of that decision, as well as divulging the reason why Anelka, who arrived on loan from Paris St-Germain and spent half a season demonstrating his ability to form a perfect partnership with Owen, was not retained.
On the other hand, Liverpool and their fans should never forget the work Houllier did to ensure that Owen and Gerrard received the best possible treatment for their long-term injury problems. Whatever their reservations about his tactical acumen, both men owe him a great deal — as may England within the next few weeks.
One wonders, too, what Djibril Cissé is making of this week’s news. With 26 goals, the Auxerre forward has just finished the season as the French league’s top scorer. Currently suspended from international competition, he will arrive at Anfield fresh and ready to justify the first instalment of his £14-million fee. But the manager who arranged his transfer will not be there to greet him.
Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony le Tallec, the young pair from Le Havre, must also be wondering what the future holds.
And so, for the first time since the start of the Paisley era, Liverpool will turn to a complete outsider as they attempt to bridge the final gap between themselves and the three teams who finished in the podium positions in this season’s premier league table.
Their willingness to do whatever it takes to join the high rollers is also made plain in the board’s negotiations over additional funding from the prime minister of Thailand.
It remains to be seen what effect these decisions, and the attitude they symbolise, will have on the club’s treasured culture.
And it will be even more interesting to hear what Liverpool’s fans are saying in a year’s time about the successor to a manager who, for all his faults, was prepared to shed red blood in their cause. —