Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Thursday September 9 2010
Time: 10:00AM
UK time is: 00:34:16
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Phil Thompson On Why He Turned Down Terrific Villa
Phil Thompson has explained in the LIVERPOOL ECHO why he turned down the chance to work with Gerard Houllier again... this time at Villa.
It actually makes good reading, especially interesting for those who have said some pretty rough things about the fella this week. I find it a bit baffling that fans think staff have to support the Villa to work here. We are the fans, the best in the land (I know that because it says so in our The Bells Are Ringing song!) and all Villa need are the very best staff!
Anyway, the full interview can be seen here: LIVERPOOL ECHO
He admits he was offered the job and he was tempted to join up with Houllier and Patrice Bergues but the committment that Houllier asks for was too much:
'When you work with Gerard, you are signing up to 12 hour days; on top of that, you have to go to reserve games, scout players and also head off to check up on forthcoming opponents - in other words, you have to be totally committed.'
He says he didn't want to move his family and couldn't work away from them all week.
All fair enough I think.
And now for those always banging on about how much he hates Villa:
'I would have been cheating Gerard, the club and the fans and that would not have been fair; Aston Villa are a terrific club with a great history'
He also says he has no doubt Houllier will do a 'terrific' job for Villa... explaining 'He has got a wealth of knowledge, knows the game inside out'
So there you go.
And on assistant managers: Let The Assistant Speculation Begin
And from The Telegraph apparently he is expected to bring in Patrice Bergues who was his assistant at Liverpool and Lyon.
Wiki: Click Here
Houllier said:
'I am very happy and proud to join this great and historic club. It was a very difficult decision for me to leave the FFF but I could not turn down the opportunity to manage a club whose approach, both on and off the pitch, I have long admired. Aston Villa is one of England's biggest clubs and has an amazing set of fans. This is a tremendous challenge and one I am very much looking forward to taking on.'
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Your Comments
VWRA I assume you made that up???
Valiant Villan™
In fairness, did you see Ronaldo when he 1st came over to Manure, he was useless, never put a cross in, beat the same man 4 times and would then fall over.
It was Fergie that turned him into the player he was at Old Trafford.
All this is a bit harsh on Thompson to be fair. Played for Liverpool all his career, Club Captain, won everything with them so is obviously going to be very passionate about them.
Didnt see why this would have been a problem him working here. Can you only work here if you support the Villa. If they came as a team and work well together surely thats all that matters??
Anyway, King MacDonald will be in place now, the same MacDonald who prepared the team before the 6-0 humiliation at Newcastle and our exit out of Europe.....gulp!
whvilla
Didn't want the bloke, glad he's not coming but a fair interview and sound reasons behind his decision. I think we get wrapped up in the "persona" sometimes!
Jon.H
Come one guys. No matter what he says now he has always come across as someone with little respect for Aston Villa. He's not coming. Good. Now let's move on.
Adam Deuce
first good thing he's ever said about the Villa. Be very interesting to see who comes in as assistant, just hope we don't lose KMac and more importantly Sid from the staff.
AVbornandbred
Fair enough reasons, he may be red through and through but he's made his choice now so we have to move on to the positivies.
Reading on the background of Bergues, see,s he's the link man for Houllier, so let's hope he can have the same success if he joins us!
CannockVilla
Fear I wish you would stop this crazy notion of saying it is because he is a redscouse fan that we didn't want him. I can't recall any post saying that. People didn't want him because of his condescending, patronising and downright disrespectful way he was against us. Critisism is fair. His comments were just downright rude. It is equivalent of me saying to you ' your website is pants, the people that go on it are all bottom feeders and it will never be as good as what Redscouses is. Don't ever expect to be one of the most succesful Vital Football sites because you have no chance!! By the way can I have a job?? I can see you jumping at the opportunity to give me some of your hard earned if that was the case. Not. He was not and never will be welcome at Villa. And if has been advised to do a smart bit of PR work to cover his tracks, then all fool anybody who has been fooled. Thompson has constantly made his views on Villa clear and this simple PR stunt will never erase the rubbish he has spouted.
voiceoftheholte
VWRA - Nearly right about the Ronaldo one, it is true that we were scouting him. GH/PT met with Ronaldo's agent about a proposed £5m move to Liverpool and his agent was asking for £1m a year wages for what was a 17yr old at the time. Liverpool wouldn't sanction that deal as he would have been paid more than Hyppia (a reg first team member). They retained interest and (according to PT's autobio) were absolutely amazed to see that Ronaldo had signed for the Mancs a couple of weeks later for nearly 3 times the price. Another reason why they didn't pursue him was that LFC had just signed two of the hottest prospects in Euro football in Le Tallec and Pongolle (who finished 1st and 2nd to Ronaldo's 3rd in that summer's EURO under 18's). Obviously in retrospect it was a howler but you can see why the decisions were made at the time. Not quite as bad as Souness turning down Cantona for a trial at Liverpool... Ps who recommended Cantona to Ferguson? One Gerard Houllier.
KB1
I cartaintly did not want him at villa but i dont care now he isnt coming...Very nice comments from Houllier, looking forward to the season again now.
P.Avfc
Ive seen thommo many occassions praise our performance's, also wasnt it thommo who tipped us for fourth the previous 2 seasons. All i am saying is ive heard merse slag us of saying we aint big enough to compete with the big boys. They all say things its there job hes not coming so lets look forward to the season with new fresh optimism and we deserve it after what 4 weeks we all been through.
ClivetheVillan
Phil Tompson turned the Villa job down because he knows he's not a particularly popular chap around Villa Park, simples. Houllier isn't the most popular chap for starters, can you imagine the furore if Thompson signed up as well? At least this way Houllier might have a chance to win the doubters over. Good luck to him, hope he gets your season back on track.
fifthcolumnblue
thanx for the good luck remark fith, im not sure which blue u r m8, man city chelsea or somethin but good luck also
ClivetheVillan
@ Clive - man City mate. And fair dues to the Villans if they do actually approve of Houllier's appointment - I should know better than to listen to the likes of Stan Collymore, unless he's telling me where the good dogging sites are. Bet you wouldn't have been too happy if Thompson had tagged along though!
fifthcolumnblue
lol fifth yeah thought city, to be honest i dont think he could have done a better job than kev Mcdonald would but all this anti thommo some think makes me laugh, merson used to play for us ive heard him on sky slag us off more times than thommo yet he used to play for us lol How u feel about roberto Mancini u think he's the one? im not convinced
ClivetheVillan
The more I read about houllier the more I like him, This may just be a master stroke by Lerner.
claretandbluearmy
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