English Premiership News 2003/2004

[steve1234]

Bu Bye

Houllier exits Liverpool

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier has parted company with the club.
The Reds directors ended Houllier's six-year reign even though he met their target of a Champions League place.

"I'd rather have stayed as manager but I leave on good terms with everybody. I may have left Liverpool, but Liverpool will not leave me," said Houllier.

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry said: "The board decided change was necessary if we were to realistically challenge for the title next season."


Charlton's Alan Curbishley and Rafael Benitez of Valencia are favourites to take over from Houllier.

But BBC Sport understands Celtic's Martin O'Neill is not among the frontrunners to succeed the Frenchman.

Liverpool meant six years of happiness of me. The team and I have had a great relationship

Liverpool's late run to grab fourth place in the Premiership - and the final Champions League spot - was not enough to save Houllier.

"Gerard has accepted this with typical good grace," added Parry.

"We have always said we would review our position at the end of the season and that is what we have now done.

"Although we have reached the Champions League that is a minimum standard and not a goal."

Houllier's exit adds to the uncertainty caused by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra trying to buy into the club.

Thaksin is due to fly to England shortly to continue negotiations over a £60m bid for 30% of the Anfield club.

The Thai PM became the sole bidder after the Liverpool board blocked millionaire Liverpool fan Steve Morgan's attempt to plough £73m into the club.

Morgan had been a fierce critic of Houllier, however, and the pressure he put on the board cannot have helped the Frenchman's cause.

LIVERPOOL MANAGERIAL ODDS
7/4: Rafael Benitez
3/1: Martin O'Neill
4/1: Alan Curbishley
5/1: Gordon Strachan
6/1: Jose Mourinho
7/1: Steve McClaren
Odds supplied by Ladbrokes
Houllier, a former France coach and technical director of the French Football Federation, moved to Liverpool as joint-manager alongside Roy Evans in July 1998.

By November 1998 Evans had gone, leaving Houllier in sole charge, and in 2000-2001 he enjoyed his best campaign - winning the Uefa Cup, FA Cup, Worthington Cup and European Super Cup.

In 2001 Houllier had major surgery after a heart attack - which began speculation about his future - but he silenced the doubters in 2002-2003 by winning the League Cup again.

However, pressure on the manager grew again this season with Liverpool never likely to challenge the top three of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Houllier said his fondest memories included the 2001 FA Cup and Uefa Cup triumphs over Arsenal and Alaves respectively, and the fans' tribute at Anfield when he was recovering from heart surgery.

I wish Gerard good luck, and thanks for the effort, but we must move on and up!

"I arrived here six years ago as a Liverpool supporter and I leave as an even bigger supporter," he told the club website.

"I will return to watch the team as a fan."

The search for his successor will begin immediately, with Curbishley and Benitez the two leading names, although O'Neill and Jose Mourinho of Porto have also been tipped.


Leave O'Neil alone! They can have Mourinho

 

[Fastshow]

Yiddoes get a new front-man........

Been quiet from the pork-dodgers of late, particularly given their headline-grabbing revelations this week.......

Levy delivers as Santini pledges move into elite

By Adrian Curtis and Steve Stammers, Evening Standard

4 June 2004

Daniel Levy would be forgiven for having a smile on his face this morning after producing a managerial-coup with the appointment of Jacques Santini.

As French football awoke today to the shock of their national team coach leaving them for Tottenham, the club's chairman can rightly claim he has delivered the big name from the football world he promised.

There had been a danger Spurs were beginning to look a laughing stock having gone nine months without a permanent boss since sacking Glenn Hoddle.





Santini was not the No1 choice, that was first Martin O'Neill and then the Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni. Then it was Marc Crawford, Glen Hoddle, Chris Waddle, George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, Daffy Duck, Tony Tanti and a torn Sainsbury's bin bag. Indeed, they only began talking a few weeks ago after Standard Sport revealed Santini wanted the job.

Quite how it will all work with a French head coach, a potential Dutch assistant in Martin Jol, a Danish sporting director in Frank Arnesen, and a squad of players of such shite quality only time will tell.

But Santini will have endeared himself to the Spurs fans with his opening salvo after this paper broke the story of his appointment yesterday afternoon.

He said: "I am delighted to get the opportunity to join Tottenham Hotspur. I am an ambitious man and it has always been a dream of mine to coach a big English club in the most exciting league in the world. I love sausages.

"Tottenham are a very big club, with a wonderful history and great traditions. Daniel and Frank have outlined their vision and I share their ambitions. I am determined to help the club return to its place among the elite and look forward to joining them after Euro 2004. Please pass me my meds, it's ages since I took my anti-delusion tablets."

How the news will be received in France by the fans and his players should unravel this morning not, of course, that news can, in reality, unravel. It was clear some time ago Santini was having problems getting a new deal from the French Football Federation because he never got another deal from the French Football Federation and it is possible they may react badly by their coach negotiating his future so soon to the start of Euro 2004 and the crunch game against England.

Santini said: "My contract with the French FA expires on 30 June and I'd decided that that I needed a final decision before we went to Portugal next week. The offer from Tottenham initiated by Arnesen was sufficiently precise and interesting to lead to an interview with Levy last weekend and then to an agreement.

"I would have, without doubt, considered with pleasure a new deal with Les Bleus because the squad is so strong, talented and ambitious. The circumstances did not allow this and I have no pointless regrets nor bitterness towards anyone." So what sort of man are Tottenham getting, other than a mercenary-like scumbag who will fit into that area of North London so well? When the France squad gathered in August 2002 for their first international against Tunisia after what was the disaster of the last World Cup, there was one question which featured prominently among the players as the debate turned to the new manager.

"Jacques Who?" was the sentiment among many of them. Not now, that is. People now know his surname is Santini which sounds Italian but, apparently, we're meant to believe he's French. Everyone is aware of the character and the Santini philosophy, with the exception of, perhaps, filling the net and most others on TTP.com, the man who has guided France to the finals of Euro 2004 with an unblemished record in the qualifying games.

That reflects accurately what the 52-year-old clearly demands - total commitment which is why, experts say, he's properly bollocksed at White Hart Lane.

The job at Spurs will certainly not intimidate him and neither will the prospect of dealing with highly paid, if underachieving, Premiership players. He is a man you upset at your peril. Santini has an elephant-like memory and never forgets anyone who has crossed him over the years.

"He never forgives, never," said an informed source in France today, someone whose name I've forgotten. "And he does not shy away from difficult decisions. He does not care who he upsets." The well documented cases in recent years concern Nicolas Anelka and Emmanuel Petit. Both never returned to the team after criticising him.

Santini enjoyed more fame as a coach than a player. At 17, he joined St-Etienne just when they were about to embark on a golden era. A busy, inventive midfield player, his career was stunted by the presence of Jean-Michel Larque and an emerging youngster called Michel Platini.

He spent too much time on the bench for his liking although it could have been so different, however, but for the width of a crossbar at Hampden Park in the 1976 European Cup Final against Bayern Munich.

He began his coaching career at Third Division side Lisieux but came to prominence at Lyon where he took the team to the league cup win in his first season and the championship in his second, 2001-02. And it was to Santini the French Football Federation turned that year when Roger Lemerre's reign came to an abrupt end on the back of the World Cup failure in South Korea and Japan.

Santini has, by all accounts, impressed the players. He has certainly gained the respect of the dressing room, which is no mean feat when it contains such high-profile performers as Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram, Robert Pires and Fabien Barthez.

There are bound to be comparisons between Santini and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. Both are French, both were relatively unknown in England, both served their apprenticeship in the lower leagues, and both are so miserable looking you'd swear someone pissed in their cornflakes. Wenger also does not know how to tie a tie and only has the one, a red velvety abortion he never takes off, even to go to bed (with young boys). There is also one further remarkable coincidence. In Wenger's home village near Strasbourg, the family restaurant was used as the meeting point for the local football team.

In the village of Fesches-le-Chatel, near Sochaux and, like Strasbourg, in the east of France, Santini's family ran the local bar - which was used as the base for the local team.

It's a fcuking astounding coincidence really, when you think about it. Two men who both need to eat and drink.

There is, however, one crucial difference. On arrival, Wenger's English was immaculate and that was a considerable benefit in dealing with the players and the media. Santini's mastery of the language is limited to say the least, much like the majority of his players with Robbie Keane being the most incomprehensible.

 

[Walks]

What are the sausages like in North London ??

 

[Fastshow]

What are the sausages like in North London ??

Beefy.

Ranger Forever would be in a spot of bother were he to ever become lost and end up in North London on his way home from NAP.

Good job he's so quick.

 

[Fastshow]

Rainieri quotes.......

The man's a legend and makes more sense than a lot of people on TTP...... Claudio Rainieri; philosopher, poet, thinker, nutjob.

"If it is the case that you need just a first 11 and three or four more

players, then why did Christopher Columbus sail to India to discover

America?" - Why indeed?

"Football managers are like a parachutist. At times it doesn't open. Here,

it is an umbrella. You understand, Mary Poppins?" - Nope. No. Not at all.

"Damien is Damien. When I don't put him in the squad my mother, who's 84,

asks 'why isn't Damien playing?' She kills me about it and that's true" -

Mrs Ranieri has a thing for little Irish men.

"My only technical adviser is my mother. When I told her that Damien had

injured his shoulder again, she said 'oh no!' Who should replace him? I will

call her before the game to ask." - This is getting worrying.

"He's a crazy man" - Ranieri on Ranieri.

"They showed good stamina and good vitamins" - The Arsenal win explained.

"Before you kill me, you call me the 'dead man walking'. I must buy you an

espresso. But only a little one - I am Scottish!"

"Two years ago I watched Carlton play for the reserves and I saw two animals

in him - one was a rabbit and the other a lion. I want to see that lion come

out in him more often" - Ranieri on Carlton Cole.

"He is my new little lion. And I like lions" - Ranieri on Hernan Crespo.

"He is like a shark, like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink" - Ranieri on Mutu. But

then...

"I once said Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is like a shark and Carlton Cole like a

lion. Well, Adrian Mutu is another born predator. In fact, Mutu is like a

snake" - Ranieri changes his mind and completes his zoo.

"I am happy when our fans are happy, when our players are happy and our

hairman is on the moon" - Well, when your chairman's Ken Bates...

"One coach was training a player's hair, and another was training another

part of his body" - Now that's what we call the personal touch.

"One beautiful day, a radiant day, Mr Abramovich introduced himself to me

and said I should put a shopping list together" - Claudio Ranieri. Poet.

"When I talk to the players I speak first of all in English, then I say

'sorry, now I will speak in Spanish, or Italian. Then on the touchline I

speak another language so the other manager doesn't understand what I am

saying!" - Explaining it all.

"When are you coming, Sven?" - Ranieri's words of greeting to Sven when the

two met at Highbury last season.

"I can't change now. I'm like Frank Sinatra - I always do it my way. I told

the players everything I did in the Monaco game was wrong. I changed things

to win the match - but we lost and I was thinking "Oh f*** Claudio, why,

why? Bad Tinkerman!"

"I think Veron is the best midfielder in the world" - The funniest of the

lot.

 

[Fastshow]

Another fcuking nutjob.........

Foreigners are fun.........

The bizarre career of Nicolas Anelka took another amazing twist today when he said he would probably quit English football after converting to Islam.



Anelka claimed he was ready to walk out on his six-year contract with Manchester City and play for a team in the United Arab Emirates.

The former French international, whose career has been littered with fall-outs with clubs and managers, has spent the last week in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Yesterday he was thought to have been in Mecca, the holiest place of worship in the Islamic faith.