GERARD ALWAYS TOP MAN

IT’S often been said that Gerard Houllier and I never really saw eye to eye when we were both at Liverpool.

At times, that was true, but that doesn’t mean I disliked him. It’s like most people – if you’re not playing, you don’t like the manager.

You realise, in time, that it isn’t personal. I have realised that all Gerard (above) had in his mind was the good of Liverpool.

Football is often a hard learning exercise and you have to take everything you have done – and that includes fallouts with people – and gain knowledge from those experiences.

When you go from playing regularly to being left out, you think it’s personal. Over the years you realise it’s not.

Even when I was being left out of the side, I did acknowledge that he was tactically brilliant.

I’m not knocking Roy Evans, who I thought was a very good manager alongside him, but Gerard came in and maybe brought a little bit of the 21st century to Anfield.

The hard work Gerard, who died this week, and the staff did behind the scenes was absolutely frightening.

Technically, he was brilliant. What I always found about him was he was honest and straight with you. He just wanted you to get better.

There was humility and humanity around him.

He was always giving you little hints on how to improve and you had to take them on board.

I spoke to him on many occasions after we both left Liverpool and we got on really well.

It took me a while to be a realist, in all honesty.

I had a lot of time for him as a manager, despite not always been picked. As a man, he was extraordinary.