Gérard Houllier: the man who nearly died making Liverpool great again
Radio is a terrible way to follow football. There will be those who disagree - they call themselves ‘purists’ - but commentary, even at its most vivid, without accompanying pictures leads to a fog of unclarity and uncertainty. Chances for the opposition team feel more threatening than they are whereas those for your own never seem to be anywhere near goal.
But sometimes radio is the only way to follow football, and sometimes it does provide the full picture. Like it did on the evening of Tuesday, 10 November 1998. I was 17 at the time, a Liverpool fanatic and alone in my bedroom listening to coverage of my team’s League Cup tie against Tottenham on a CD player that happened to have AM radio. The sound was fuzzy and the lack of visuals not ideal, but I got a sense of everything. Crucially, I felt it too. It felt like the end.
Liverpool came into the game on the back of three games without victory, two of which had been Premier League defeats. They were also playing poorly, as had been the case for some time, and the supporters, so proud of their loyalty and sense of strength in adversity, were starting to give up. There was a crowd of just 20,772 at Anfield that night and they were the unlucky ones as Liverpool went on to lose 3-1. It was a pitiful performance played out in eerie, desperate silence.
And it really was the end - the end of Roy Evans’ and Gérard Houllier’s joint managership. It had started that summer after Evans had been the sole manager for the previous four years and 10 months. He had done a good job, returning a sense of pride and pizzazz to the club after Graeme Souness’ troubled spell in charge. Homegrown players such as Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman peaked having been given their wings by a man steeped in Liverpool’s boot room tradition and the team won things. Well, one thing - the 1995 League Cup.
They also challenged for the title but, ultimately, that was Evans’ downfall; Liverpool came close but never close enough and by the end of his reign were slipping backwards in that pursuit. A once-mighty institution was sinking into an abyss of mid-table and trophy-starved mediocrity and, as such, change was required. That meant Houllier coming in, initially to work alongside Evans. But it didn’t work and after the loss to Spurs, the latter departed.
Houllier’s first match as sole manager came that Saturday and once again it ended in a 3-1 home defeat, this time to Leeds. Anfield was full on this occasion and those in attendance could have been forgiven for thinking nothing was ever going to change. But it would. For in the dugout there was a Frenchman with a revolutionary spirit and he would save Liverpool Football Club.
That may sound like a wild overstatement but the evidence is pretty clear. Across Houllier’s five full seasons in charge, Liverpool won five major pieces of silverware, with three of those forming the remarkable treble of 2000-01, a campaign in which the club also returned to Europe’s elite competition, the Champions League, for the first time in a generation. The following year there was also a secondplace finish resulting from a final tally of 80 points, Liverpool’s highest during the Premier League era and enough to have won a 19th league championship in four of the previous five campaigns.
Liverpool were a force again, at home and abroad, and while ultimately Houllier’s time at the club ended with no league title and, as most managerial reigns do, messily and regretfully, his impact was profound, on and off the pitch. The Frenchman not only got Liverpool winning again but he did so with a squad that through practice and mental fortitude had finally entered the modern era. More than that, he brought through a core of players who long after his departure would continue to thrive.
Some would call it a legacy, and one of real poignancy given Houllier almost died making Liverpool great again. The story is well known but bears repeating: at half-time of a league fixture with Leeds in October 2001, Liverpool’s manager suffered a dissected aorta that required him to undergo an emergency bypass operation lasting over 11 hours. He wouldn’t have made it had it not been for a series of fortunate circumstances and, arguably, things would not have unravelled so fast and drastically had Houllier not returned to work so soon, which he did through a sense of duty, drive and passion.
That is the other beguiling aspect of the story - managing Liverpool was not a cold assignment for him but rather a calling dating back to the late 1960s when he moved to the city in order to work as a teaching assistant at Alsop Comprehensive, a former grammar school located less than a couple of miles away from Anfield. Houllier fell in love with his surroundings and, a football fanatic for as long as he could remember, it was no surprise he found himself drawn to the local team that played in red. Bill Shankly’s Liverpool were on the march and Houllier breathed in their fire, no more so than on the night he stood on the Kop and watched the hosts dismantle Dundalk 10-0 in a Uefa Cup tie.
He eventually returned to France where teaching morphed into a hugely successful coaching career that peaked with the Ligue 1 title he won with Paris Saint-Germain in 1986. Come the summer of 1997, he was being asked by Peter Robinson, Liverpool’s chief executive, if he would like to return to the city, this time to manage the club he once watched and still adored.
Houllier turned down the invitation as he was in the midst of overseeing France’s pursuit of the 1998 World Cup in his role as technical director with the French Football Federation, but with that triumph achieved and his contract with the FFF having expired, he decided the time was right to take on the job of his dreams, doing so on the basis that Evans remained. It was a curious state of affairs - Liverpool’s first foreign boss working as a joint manager with somebody who had already been in the post for some time. Both insisted it could work; both probably knew deep down that it wouldn’t.
Clear lines of communication was an issue - the players didn’t know who to speak to and who, actually, was in charge. Their approach was an issue, too. Evans was old-school, trusting his players to largely regulate their own diet and fitness, which meant even in the 1990s, a period when English football was going through profound change, there were players at the country’s most successful club eating beans and sausage on toast as a pre-match meal and skipping sessions in the gym if they felt like it. The ‘Spice Boys’ tag may have been overplayed but it also struck at a truth.
Indeed, this is why Houllier was brought into Liverpool in the first place. Robinson recognised his coaching credentials but also his ability to instil discipline and a greater level of professionalism in regards to how the club operated. The hope was that could be achieved with Evans, a hugely popular and loyal servant for over 35 years, sharing the managerial hot seat. But ultimately a clean break was required. “It would be easy to stay, but to give Gérard and his team a chance you have to walk away,” said a teary Evans at the press conference held to announce his departure. “I didn’t want to end as a ghost on the wall.”
Houllier’s style was as different to Evans’ as ballet is to jazz but that did not mean him kicking the door down at Liverpool’s Melwood training base on day one of becoming sole manager and demanding everyone did 20 push-ups on the spot. A former schoolteacher who knew how to impose himself on a group of young men, Houllier may have wanted to do that, but he recognised that making sweeping changes could significantly harm his authority in the way it had done Souness at the start of the decade. So instead he went about things gradually. There was no French revolution.
Having brought in former club captain Phil Thompson to be his assistant, Houllier essentially used the remainder of the 1998-99 season as a recce, observing what was working and, more importantly, what needed to change. That eventually led to overhauls in nutrition and fitness, training sessions becoming more focused on tactics and defending and, most profoundly, a sweep of the squad.
The end of that campaign, one in which Liverpool finished seventh and a yawning 25 points behind champions Manchester United, saw a host of players leave, most notably captain Paul Ince. In author Simon Hughes’ book
Ring of Fire, Houllier insists he liked Ince and recognised he was a “fantastic player”, but through those initial observations he also recognised that the self-styled ‘Guv’nor’ was an overbearing presence in the dressing room and the organiser of one too many nights out. Quite simply Ince had to go, and he did, joining Middlesbrough for £1m in July 1999. Other established figures were also sold, including David James, Oyvind Leonhardsen and Bjørn Tore Kvarme, while McManaman left on a free transfer having signed a contract with Real Madrid the previous January. His exit, unlike the others, was a blow but it was a further sign that Liverpool were moving on.
It was at this point that Houllier displayed one of the assets that made him such an impactful, successful manager: recruitment. It’s one thing getting rid of bad players, it’s another signing the right ones to replace them, but that is what Houllier did ahead of his first full season in charge. By and large, the names were unknown and underwhelming - Sami Hyypiä, Stéphane Henchoz, Titi Camara, Erik Meijer, Sander Westerveld, Dietmar Hamann - but they embodied exactly what the manager wanted. As Houllier puts it in Ring of Fire, “We signed a group of players from different countries, different leagues and different attitudes - probably more in tune with what happened elsewhere. Sometimes you need to change and evolve.”
That is certainly what Liverpool did. Not long into the new season, it was obvious this was a very different side to that which had performed under Evans - less adventurous but also less flaky, operating with a level of organisation, doggedness and steel that had been absent for most of the previous decade. Hyypiä and Henchoz were crucial to that, forming a superb centreback partnership that was well protected by Hamann, who, having overcome an injury in the opening-day victory over Sheffield Wednesday, developed into one of the most impressive
defensive midfielders in the country.
It may not have been pretty but it was effective and inside 12 months Liverpool jumped from seventh to fourth on the back of the best defence in the land, conceding just 30 goals in 38 fixtures. They missed out on Champions League qualification by two points following a final day defeat to Bradford but, overall, it had been a positive campaign, in part because, alongside the contributions of the initially-mysterious foreign imports, there were those from a core of homegrown talent.
This touches on one of the great myths of Houllier’s time at Liverpool that he stripped the club of its English heart. The truth is that there were not many other managers, before or after the Frenchman, who gave more players from this country a chance. David Thompson, Dominic Matteo, Danny Murphy and Jamie Redknapp all featured during the 1999-2000 season, as did Michael Owen, having by that stage cemented his status as the hot thing of English football. And then there was Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard who in different ways are testimony to Houllier’s belief that one of his main responsibilities as Liverpool manager was to help the club’s young players progress.
Given his debut by Evans in 1997, Carragher was a hard-working but limited player whose somewhat reckless off-field nature put him in danger of wasting a career before it had properly started. Few would have blamed Houllier if he turned his back on the Bootleborn star, but instead he took the time to get to know Carragher, recognising that he was a youth team graduate who maintained a wild side but was also willing to listen and improve. “Jamie was clever in reading the game and learning from his experiences, both good and bad,” Houllier says in Ring of Fire. “He was patient with himself and patient with me and I explained to him from the beginning that I saw him as a player who would find himself.”
That is what Carragher did, getting his head down in 1999-2000 as a versatile centre-back or full-back option, going onto have a Liverpool career that spanned 17 years and over 700 appearances for the club.
The situation with Gerrard was more straightforward in that it was obvious to Houllier as soon as he saw the midfielder play in a youth game against Blackburn that he had the talent and desire to make it at the top level. The issue instead was growing pains Gerrard’s teenage frame struggled with the demands of men’s football, leading to him collecting numerous injuries having made his debut for the first team, again against Blackburn, on 29 November 1998. Patience more than guidance was required and that is what Houllier showed, even sending Gerrard to France to be treated by a team of physiotherapists with the firm belief that, long term, it would lead to this most precocious of talents being able to put a string of games together. He did, and then some.
Not all of the homegrown players progressed under Houllier, with Thompson and Matteo not even getting past that first season. They were sold to Coventry and Leeds respectively in the summer of 2000 as Houllier went on another transfer splurge, bringing in the likes of Markus Babbel and Gary McAllister to add guile and experience to a squad that showed itself to be short of those qualities in the final few weeks of the previous campaign. Again, Houllier’s sense of what was required in recruitment proved spot-on as Liverpool enjoyed their most successful season from a trophy-winning point of view since 1983-84.
The treble was the undeniable high point of Houllier’s time at Liverpool, and while the team were fortunate to win the FA Cup final - when Owen single-handedly turned a game that had been well and truly going Arsenal’s way - they showed incredible resilience and quality throughout a long and gruelling campaign. It was also one littered with memorable results – home and away wins against Manchester United and Everton as well as a Uefa Cup semi-final victory over Barcelona that included a masterful goalless draw at Camp Nou in the first leg. It was a game which, more than any other, showed how mature and tactically astute Liverpool had become under Houllier. How they were finally back to being a ‘proper’ team.
Everything was set up for Liverpool to push on and that is what they did in the 2001-02 season, finishing above Manchester United for the first time in the Premier League era and only missing out on the title to an Arsenal side that went on to land a second double in four years. But that campaign was ultimately the beginning of the end, in part because of what happened to the man in the charge on what should have been a relatively straightforward autumn afternoon.
Houllier was rushed to hospital at half-time of the Leeds game with chest pains. He initially thought it was down to flu and was keen to get out for the second half, especially given Liverpool were trailing 1-0. But having taken his blood pressure, Mark Waller, the club doctor, insisted he went to hospital and, as Houllier outlines in Ring of Fire, the timing proved critical. “At full time there was unbelievable traffic around Anfield and the ambulance would not have got through. At half-time, this was not the case. I was very lucky.”
There followed more luck: the hospital Houllier was taken to, Broadgreen, was just one of three cardio specialist units in the country, and the surgeon who operated on him was meant to be away but had decided to stay in Liverpool because he was feeling tired.
Houllier’s operation was a success but it meant him being signed off from work for an entire year. Thompson took charge of the team in his absence and did a fine job, maintaining Liverpool’s upward momentum in the league and Champions League. He could well have carried on until May but such was Houllier’s desire to get back to work that he returned to the dugout inside five months, appearing, unannounced, ahead of the visit of Roma in March 2002. It was an uplifting moment that sent Anfield into rapture, but it was shocking to see just how frail Houllier had become. This once straight-backed and imposing presence was now gaunt and hollow-eyed. He was a reduced man and, as events would prove, a reduced manager.
The biggest failing came in the area Houllier had been so strong - recruitment. The Frenchman’s judgement appeared to have deserted him, leading to a string of signings in the summer of 2002 that derailed Liverpool’s attempts to improve on their runners-up place from the previous campaign. El HadjiDiouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou … names to make all Liverpool fans shudder.
Tactically the team also lost its way. The solidity in defence evaporated while in midfield and attack Liverpool became stodgy, ragged and largely ineffective. It culminated in a collapse from second in 2001-02 to fifth and outside of the Champions League places in 2002-03. And while a fourth-place finish and subsequent return to Europe’s top table was achieved the following campaign, it was not enough to save Houllier, especially given Liverpool finished 30 points behind Arsenal.
Houllier insists the effects of his heart scare have been overplayed, claiming it was down to genetics rather than stress, and rather than impair his judgement it hampered his ability to do his job on a practical level. For instance, he had to rest more at home after surgery, which in turn meant fewer overseas trips to scout players, which in turn meant making signings based on trust rather than due diligence, which in turn led to the likes of Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou arriving at Anfield. That may be true but, as the cliché goes, football is a results business and by the end the results were simply not good enough, at home or abroad, with Liverpool exiting the 2002-03 Champions League at the group stages after a tepid 3-3 draw with Swiss side Basel. The manager also appeared to be feeling the strain, lashing out at outside criticism and justifying his methods in the flimsiest of manners.
His departure was inevitable and ushered in a new era: the Rafa Benítez era. Soon Liverpool fans would be celebrating the miracle of Istanbul and a catalogue of other glorious European occasions. Juventus, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid. Stories to tell the grandchildren.
Benítez is rightly revered by Liverpool fans for what he achieved during his six years at the club, but that also begs the question why Houllier is not held in the same esteem for what he did during his time on Merseyside. For while the Frenchman, now aged 72 and having not managed since a stint at Aston Villa in 2010-11, will never have to buy a pint around Anfield, the lack of love for him in those parts is glaring. His name is rarely mentioned let alone sung, while his face is not visible anywhere among the kaleidoscope of banners and flags that adorn the Kop.
In part, that may be because he never won either of the trophies that really matter to Kopites – the league or European Cup – and also perhaps because of the way it ended. It may even have something to do with Houllier’s relationship with Fowler, which deteriorated to the point that a player known as ‘God’ among the fans felt he had no option but to leave and join Leeds in November 2001. Regardless, almost 16 years since Houllier himself left Liverpool, there is no denying his achievements while in charge of the club are worthy of great appreciation.
It really cannot be overestimated how great the sense of drift was at Liverpool in the late 1990s, caught perfectly in that bleak night at a halfempty Anfield in November 1998, resulting from the decay that often sets in at mighty clubs in their post-imperial years. Houllier reversed the tide through his intelligence, instincts and talent, and what was ultimately important to him was not just what he won but what he left behind. Gerrard, for one, is grateful for having Gérard Houllier around during his formative years at Liverpool, describing him as a “father figure”.
“The fans don’t truly appreciate what Gérard did for the club,” says Thompson. “He worked tirelessly, rebuilding the team. Above all, it shouldn’t be forgotten that he nearly gave his life to make Liverpool great again.”
This article was first published by These Football Times as part of their special Liverpool edition.
Managing Liverpool was not a cold assignment for him but rather a calling dating back to the late 1960s