If you didn’t watch last week’s press conference, you can be excused if this is new news. However, those of us who watched it and paid attention heard Gerard Houllier explain quite succinctly that he had prior commitments that prevented him being at Stoke. He went on to say that he might be in charge for Bolton, but it may well be afterward, he did promise to attend that match regardless, watching from the stands if necessary.

He also mentioned that he was technically obliged to see out three months’ notice in France, so he was in the process of negotiating an exit as early as possible. In a nutshell, he was demonstrating that he’s a reliable and honest man with integrity, not a complete tool.

If you read certain publications, you’d be totally unaware of this and under the impression that his start date was a massive unknown and that he may not actually be coming to Villa Park until November. You’ll probably also be aware that Houllier was not able to name an assistant manager the day he was announced as manager, just a matter of days into the recruitment process proper. This was described as a “farce” in many quarters.

Psst! Would you like to buy a shirt? I have a supplier, I can get them before November. Meet me around the back!

Maybe they’ve never been on the other end, perhaps made redundant and extremely grateful for the mandatory three months’ notice the employer is obliged to provide in the UK.

Even so, it only takes a modicum of intelligence to appreciate that this doesn’t happen overnight, you can’t just magic it into existence. If people wanted someone who was available immediately, i.e. out of work, there was always Sven or Curbishley, but they would still need to assemble a team too.

Again, if you must point the finger of blame anywhere, point it squarely at the man who walked out on us just five days before the season kicked off. Under the circumstances, I think we’re doing very well and have got ourselves an excellent replacement.

Coaching Team

I can’t recall there being so much fuss about assistant managers & coaches in the past, but it may just be me. We know that Phil Thompson will not be Houllier’s right hand man and neither will Kevin MacDonald, who is now reportedly “considering his future” at Aston Villa after stating his preference to return to his old position rather than be part of Houllier’s first team coaching structure. I hope that’s not accurate, but I’m not sure what he was really expecting if it’s true and a reaction to recent events.

In all likelihood, it probably is just another example of the wonderful British press creating a non-story and KMac will go back to coaching the reserves, but possibly with new ideas about his future – top level management clearly wasn’t on his radar a month ago.

Gary McAllister, a cultured player I always thought and currently assistant manager at Boro, has emerged as the latest probable sidekick, Gordon Strachan confirming that the club have been approached for permission to talk to him, although he didn’t say who from.

I noticed a Tweet yesterday about Robert Duverne quitting as assistant manager at Avignon. I can’t claim to have recognised his name as the national team fitness coach that Patrice Evra famously had a bust up with in South Africa, but I did expect his name to be the next linked with Villa Park. Well, he’s French, that’s how it works, non?

I think people are focusing on the negative side of that scene, but without knowing the details of what was really happening, I was quite pleased to see someone standing up to the apparent petulance of the over indulged players. I also enjoyed the whistle being thrown into the bush, that’s was hilarious.

I’ve also seen early signs of a growing unease at the potential “Frenchification” of Villa Park. By ‘unease’, I mean paranoia and borderline xenophobia of course.

My view is that aside from the 12 month Dr. Jo experiment (I read somewhere recently that he was the first non-British manager in the English top flight), we’ve always been very British at the top and one of the definitions of insanity is to repeat the same behaviour, but somehow expect a different result. Fortunately Randy appreciates that it’s 2010, not 1910.

And if you follow me on Twitter, you may have already seen this little map showing the birth places of Houllier, O’Neill and David Moyes in relation to Villa Park.

I suppose that begs such philosophical questions as: what are borders, anyway? I think we’ll save that one for another time!