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Paul Faulkner: We Are Backing Gerard

Chief Executive Paul Faulkner have given his backing to manager Gerard Houllier.

Houllier's Villa suffered a fourth successive defeat at his former club Liverpool on Monday.

He then upset Villa fans by saying 'It's difficult to say but I prefer to lose 3-0 to Liverpool because I like Liverpool' on the Merseyside club's official site.

Now we find ourselves only two points above the relegation zone ahead of Saturday's home clash with our local rivals West Brom.

But Faulkner claims Houllier has his and Randy Lerner's full support.

He said: 'From my point of view, and from Randy's, it's 'as you were'. It's not even a vote of confidence because nothing has changed for us.

We knew it was going to be hard and we are on a bad run. But the answer is to work even harder - and Gerard is doing that.

Of course, West Brom is a massive game, it's a local derby, but everyone who cares for Villa should stick together.'

He continued by saying 'Our stance has been, ever since Randy took charge of the club in 2006, to build for the long term. Continuity always pays off. Look at Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Gerard's great to work with.'

That is a slighty funny thing to say given that Houllier is 62 years old and Ferguson was in his 40's when he took charge at Old Trafford. It is not as though he is a long term appointment

Paul added 'It's only three league games ago when we were eighth and Sir Alex said we should have been 6-0 up against his team before drawing 2-2. Nothing has changed here. It's a long-term project. We always knew it was going to be difficult. The manager arrived in September and has been trying to make changes in the way things are done and make changes in the playing style.

Without wishing to make excuses, the injury list has been horrendous. Thankfully, players are starting to come back now. Fans should demand and expect total commitment from a manager and Gerard is fully focused on Aston Villa.

He is incredibly hard-working and doing everything he can to improve the team's fortunes.'

Faulkner believes Houllier's health problems and heart attack at Liverpool should be taken into consideration by Villans who might be upset that he still has an affection for his former club and to be fair I actually agree.

He said: 'I admit it didn't look great on Monday (at Liverpool) but I know that the reality is he's very focused on this job. I see that every day. But, in a way, his life was saved at Liverpool after he had a huge heart failure.

The actions of the people in that building as he stared death in the face must have had a major impact.'

Faulkner finished by discussing the January transfer window.

He said: 'We'll give him the support and the resources to do his job.

'But January has never been the ideal time to make extensive recruitment.

'If opportunities present themselves, then we will look to improve the squad.'




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Writer: Dan Jones  Mail feedback, articles or suggestions

Date:Friday December 10 2010

Time: 9:35AM

Your Comments

Am the only person who thinks that pic of RL and PF is a little dubious???
Zarch
Am I the only person who thinks that pic of RL and PF is a little dubious???
Zarch
Can't say I disagree with anything he's said. I think understandably we're hurting at losing matches, but is Houllier really the culprit? We're in this position because of one man, and one man only...Houllier needs to be given the time and space for at least till after Jan transfer before any drastic measures are made over his future. Time will tell if he's up to the job, but he's not had the time to make that call yet.
johnnyuk
For me, Randy's first ever mistake as Villa owner was appointing Houllier. Sticking with him when he's clearly not up to the job is mistake No.2
DeanoVilla
Houllier has till February for me, he is close to a full squad heading into the game vs West Brom for the first time since his arrival and I think he should be allowed the month of January to bring in one or two of his own players. In February if we are in a similar league position to now then I will be asking questions. He is yet to beat MON's bad run without a win from a couple of years ago so he gets my patience. As for his comments and actions, I am not going to pretend they upset me because they didn't but I fully understand why so many fans are upset and believe they have every right to be angry and want him out, but I am not there yet.
young_jonah
Fair comment from Paul.
Thomas Holte
Johnnyuk, I'm presuming you mean MON is the "one man, and one man only" for the position we are in. That is abject nonsense. How can you blame someone who has got us into sixth place in the last three seasons. League positions don't lie. This is not a pro-O'Neill comment, simply to say that Houllier has done zilch up until now to show whether he is up to the job or not. Injuries or not, to be accepted as serious contenders in this league, our squad as yet, does not have the depth we as supporters would really like. Let us all hope that we can give the Baggies a massive whipping and restore a deal of badly needed confidence.
AVFCinOz
meh?
victort
If we don't get 6 points from next two games he could well take us down... These next two games are biggest for sometime and draws won't help
HH2
Not too sure about whether spending in Jan is going to help, nobody good enough to improve our team is going to want to sign for us in our present form
SchoolBoyError
hh2 please stop scaring me. all this talk of relegation and i might start believing it...not.
ric112
January spending would be great and lets be honest, we don't know if it will help because MON never did it! I'm pretty sure we wont get any big sigings like Hoarou from PSG - maybe a precontract siging - but we could easily transfer in Krancjar and a loan of a striker, i.e Sturridge. God knows we need an injection of power and something to give us a lift wouodn't hurt.
koolbill
AVFCinOz of course I'm referring to MON. He ditched us at the most inopportune time. To place blame on Houllier right now when, sure he may be making the odd mistake in tactics or in saying things we don't agree with, but putting it all into perspective, his job has been made 100 times harder because of the timing of his appointment. Had Houllier been given the job at the start of the summer, given time to bring in his own players, ship out the trouble makers or slackers that he didn't want, and then time to have a full pre-season working on his style of play, then I fully expect that we'd be higher up the league table. The rep he's getting at the moment is understandable yet misguided by the simple fact that we're in this position because of MON.
johnnyuk
DeanoVilla - we all knew GH's record before his appointment - it was bloody good. How can you say his appointment was a mistake and he was not up to the job? OK, it's turned out badly (so far) but if you had told me in the summer we were going to appoint a man who has won the FA, League and Europa Cups, who has won the league in France and who was an advisor to one of the best international teams in history - I would of been rubbing my hands together.
PiperUK
We would expect no less Mr Faulkner, seeing as you appointed the guy a mere five minutes ago.
glensider
He will deserve a bit more time if we beat Westbrom and Wigan. If we lose against Westbrom I don't think he deserves any more time and we need to get out before its to late as I keep looking at the fixture list thinking 'O NO!' I'm all for giving a manager time and a long term plan but when you bring someone in that's in there 60's you expect instant results, this was not meant to be a long term plan, this was meant to be getting us back on track quickly. The line has to be drawn somewhere or it will be left to late to recover from a relegation fight. Our last two games of the season are Arsenal and Liverpool so I don't fancy needing wins to stay up come the end of the season. Can you see it now, Liverpool beat us on the last day of the season to send us down and Houllier comes out with 'I didn't want to get relegated but I'm so glad it was Liverpool that sent us down'! ;-)
revua
Take a look through the fixture list and see where the 23 points are going to come from just to hopefully secure our safely. There seems to many teams that can beat us this season and I'm very worried. Unless six come from the westbrom and Wigan games I think its going to be a lot closer to a relegation battle that most fans realise
revua
"Advisor to one of the best international teams in history" - PiperUK. Did you happen to see how France played in the last World Cup? He has never won the Europa Cup, and the trophies were all won six to seven years ago, any eternity ago in modern football terms. I hope he can pull it round for us, but please, don't tell me his record stands up in this day and age as anything more than fair.
AVFCinOz
France are one of the best international teams in history.
PiperUK
What makes you think that if GH had come in during the summer he would have brought in his own players? No one is saying so but it is obvious that MON left because he was told there was no more money to spend. Read the quotes at the time. For all that GH is our manager now and we have little option but to stick with him, at least until the season ends.

GH does have an excellent track record which makes it so difficult to understand some of his decisions. He needs to take a good look at the situation and admit:

We are not making progress

One up front is not working. Give Carew or Delfounso (or Heskey, if fit) a decent run alongside Agbonlahor

Stop talking about other teams. I understand his affection for Liverpool but I don't want to hear any more about it. Reminds me too much of O'Dreary and his fixation with Leeds.

Recognise that we are not Barcelona. Mix the pretty stuff with some more direct stuff as needed.

chocolate teapot
Honestly what can he do.......EVERY and i mean EVERY news reporter asks him about his time at liverpool, He could say i don't want to talk about Liverpool i want to talk about Villa but that maybe is not in his character. I blame the news reporters and also i blame ourselves as again we seize on one sentence in a massive transcript. Personally i think these Liverpool comparisons are going to come up all the time as they are a massive club world wide and we are just going to have to deal with it.
sonicdeathmonkey
To be fair GH should of been technical director of football and kevin macdonald should of been the manager the players respect him, you seen the bolton game. This season he would of got the hang of things by next season he'd have his own team playing one touch football KM was the way forward. Thinking about it now though GH wouldn't of been a good choice for technical director cuz he'd only stick his nose in with KM quoting "well at liverpool we did it like this" lol
villa_till_i_die_187
 

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