I don't think Houllier gets the credit he deserves, and that is due to one summer of madness when he signed Diouf, Diao et al.
Gerard single handedly dragged this club into the 21st century, and he was the guy who raised our levels of expectation again. Before the arrival of Houllier we were worryingly starting to get used to mediocrity, Champions League qualification was a bonus rather than an expectation before Houllier arrived, he raised the bar which in turn helped contribute to his downfall.
Admittedly in that last summer Houllier made some bizarre signings, but being honest after seeing Diouf & Diao in the World Cup who wasn't excited at the prospect? At the other end of the scale he also made some brilliant signings, the purchases of Hyypia, Henchoz & Babbel saw us have a defence that was the envy of Europe, and Riise whilst IMO not being good enough anymore was a steal for £4m at the time. Didi Hamman of course was an awesome player too, but for me the most inspired signing he made was Gary McAllister. I honestly believe if we hadn't signed Gary Mac we wouldn't have the Stevie Gerrard we have today, he was the old hand teaching Stevie all the tricks of the trade as he broke through the ranks.
For me it is definitely between Souness & Evans as to who has been the worst manager in recent times, I would go for Souness as he's also gone on to do a shoddy job elsewhere, proving it wasn't just a one off. How Houllier is in the running for some people though is beyond me.
Logged