Maybe I’m just being over sensitive, but it really seems that Gérard Houllier is having his words twisted more than I’m used to seeing. It may well be because he’s reputedly more forthcoming with journalists than many managers, certainly than his predecessor, but it would be a shame if he ended up being punished via the media for his candour.
MON was the master of talking and talking, but saying very little. Houllier gets to the point and his
Gerard Houllier has stood on the touchline and overseen 11 Premier League games now and the table doesn’t lie, the stats are grim. His two wins represent an 18% win ratio and you can put that up against the records of his predecessors if you wish in the manager performance table I complied just before this season kicked off.
That particular table is sorted by percentage of available points won and Houllier would sit at the bottom of the pile
I hate to sound like a broken record, but a consistent theme I’ve stressed in the Statshack series is the need to look at match statistics as a whole and to be suspicious of anyone attempting to leverage a point with the use of a single metric. Passing for example.
Last season, I read many times that the number of complete passes was an indication that our brand of football was dour and failing to improve, except when the statistics
Since last year, Premier League clubs have been required to publish the payments they’ve made to agents during the preceding 12 months at the end of November and the OS revealed that players’ representatives have received £2.28m from Aston Villa between October ’09 and September ’10, up from the £1.71m last year.
Given the lack of transfer activity at Villa Park in the last year, that might cause a head or two to be scratched. I suspect it reflects how some
Little wonder the official site changed the McAllister quotes on Pires’ imminent arrival, someone clearly jumped the gun by some margin. The Guardian have some words from the man himself:-
Robert Pires
Nothing’s done yet, nothing’s been signed, but the talks with Gérard Houllier are going well. Now let’s say I just have to convince the team doctor and hopefully I will sign before the end of the week.
The medical is set for Thursday or Friday, so we’ll see first what
Asked by French newspaper L’Equipe whether he’d be interested in signing out of favour Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema (Benzema was a teeenager trying to break into the first team at Lyon when Houllier was the manager) Houllier responded playfully; “If Karim wants to come and play at Aston Villa, we would sign him tomorrow.”
As he would with any player of that calibre, but it’s not going to happen.
You think that’s impressive, just wait until the British media get a
I’ve been mulling over writing a post exploring how player registrations, contracts and amortization of transfer fees work for a little while and planned on using John Carew as an example since there seemed to be a growing opinion that he should simply be sold in January. As if it’s really that simple.
That was before the spat that emerged via the media this weekend between player and manager, something that’s impossible to ignore, so I’ll save what I had in
I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to keep referring to them as “kids”, I know I wouldn’t have appreciated it when I was their age, but regardless of the moniker, there’s a good deal to be optimistic when we see the batch of academy graduates long tipped for greatness finally becoming first team fixtures and also gaining recognition further afield.
Barry Bannan is reportedly about to be called up to the senior Scottish side and is receiving rave reviews from just
You’ve probably already seen that Emile Heskey tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in training and will require an operation, keeping him out for three to four weeks.
With Gabby still on the come back trail after his own operation, John Carew always susceptible to a sudden injury, if this is not Nathan Delfouneso’s chance to get some time on the pitch, I don’t know when is.
With so many of the youngsters getting a look in so