24 Jun 2018 07:46:30
I remember because of his performances in the World Cup we signed El Haj Dior and let Nicolas Anelka go. What a disaster, be careful what you wish for leave it to JK.

1.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 07:58:21
Pretty sure the ball was rolling before the World Cup with Diouf.

{Ed001's Note - he was signed before the World Cup even kicked off. Anelka was never going to be signed because Houllier just wanted players to shut up and do as they are told. He would ask questions and try and give input. Shame as Nic Anelka would have been brilliant for us. He is a genuinely nice lad, who just wanted to win things.}

2.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 08:26:16
Yeah that was something I could never get my head around, anelka was an excellent player would have took us to the next level at that time and salif diao an Bruno cheyrou enough said about them, we have a bit of history with that as we could have signed Cristiano Ronaldo when he was 18 as well .

3.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 08:29:22
So funny ed
I remember exactly where I was and the date and time, when I first heard about the news that we had signed Anelka on loan
I could not stop smiling he was a player wow.

{Ed001's Note - he was a great signing and it should have been made permanent. Ged couldn't stand people having an opinion.}

4.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 08:44:26
Have you ever done a article about Ged mate?
if you have sorry and I will look forward to reading it
he was the manager who I liked but he so frustrated me with his signings sometimes or lack of signing might be a better term
still to this day cannot work out Salif Diao or Jean Micheal Ferri or Sean Dundee.

{Ed001's Note - no, but I will be in time, when I get that far in my 'Former Liverpool Managers' series. Though it will not go into depth about his time before and after us, I will be purely concentrating on his time with us.}

5.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 09:26:51
just made my day ed cheers mate.

6.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 09:38:32
Apparently Ferri was brought into the dressing room to weed out the trouble makers. Pretended he couldn't speak English but listened to everything and went back to houllier with what was said.

{Ed001's Note - Houllier was known for those kind of tactics, he always had an ear in every dressing room at clubs.}

7.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 10:57:39
wow if this is true Ben then that is some james bond tactics lol
it would make sense to why he was bought though.

8.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 13:12:38
I often detect a lack of love for Houlier from Ed001 but I had a lot of time for him to be honest and he did seem to have a genuine love for the club and Liverpool itself. yes some of his signings were poor but show me any manager who you can't say that about. That 2000/ 1 season where we won 5 trophies is the most success we've seen in 30+ years and quite a few of his signings contributed to the CL win in 2005. I think time may be judging his failings too harshly.

{Ed001's Note - lack of love? I like Ged a lot, he is a lovely fella and gave me some of my greatest memories watching us live. However that does not mean, just because I have a liking for him as a person I will overlook his major shortcomings. He was a tyrant as manager, he forced God out of the club, he refused to take an opportunity to sign Anelka, he brought a lot of dross, he employed utterly useless coaches and treated a lot of the lower paid staff badly. The style of play was not the best either, it was far too defensive.}

9.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 13:22:10
TBH Ed aren't most succesful managers like that in the way they run clubs? I don't know any but I'd guess they're all seeiously ruthless in different ways - maybe the pressure of the job just makes them that way. As you say, he seems a lovely fella which is why I'm surprised about the poor treatment of junior staff.

{Ed001's Note - very few are like that. They make the final decisions but the best delegate. Look at Fergie, he would have an assistant manager who took all the training and set the style of play. Paisley very rarely had time to take training when he was a manager. A great manager uses his staff's ability to the fullest, rather than just tells them what to do regardless of their skillset. He wanted a bunch of robots, not men, to work under him.}

10.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 13:23:17
Ged was always insecure, blamed everyone else for his issues and was such a snowflake that he could not stand anyone standing up to him or trying to give some personal input. Till this day, he is still blaming David Ginola for his failure to get France qualified for the '94 WC, something they could have done by getting a point from their last two games AT HOME and yet, managed to lose both of them.

11.) 24 Jun 2018
24 Jun 2018 20:24:14
Forced God out of the club. That line alone sums up my feelings today about the man. Brought some decent success, but the way Fowler was treated was awful, never held Owen in anywhere near the same regard with his inputing that either.

12.) 25 Jun 2018
25 Jun 2018 06:32:41
Agree with ed about managers and training. Managers need to be observing training whilst others run the sessions.

{Ed001's Note - agreeing with me again? This is getting worrying now Ronald, you keep agreeing with me. We never used to agree on anything not so long ago!}