KaKa

With all the work he put in helping develop Clairefontaine I think Houllier would be perfect for the criteria the club have set. I can see him running the club and Shearer taking charge on the training ground everyday, that's if they work together that is. But what about the style of play?! Did you guys not watch Houllier's Liverpool team?! Houllier's Lyon looked brilliant though.

They need to be careful on that front, but I think it's commonly accepted (by the board and the fans) that winning is first and foremost. Not at all. I think it is good that those who are interested in the job know this from the outset, and I think it's good that we have clarified this ourselves before looking to appoint someone, so that we can look at the type of football each candidate has produced with their former teams. Look, even the best of teams get involved in ugly games once in a while, as sometimes it is difficult to play perfect football which could be due to anything such as the weather and even the opponents you face. However, having a manager who truly believes in this philosophy of playing this type of football is what is important. This is because their ideas will constantly be preached to the players we have and we will inevitably play good football the majority of the time and for the majority of our games at least. It will also mean we will bring in the types of players who can make this more possible. I'm impressed and hugely relieved. It certainly looks like we are going about things the right way. Here's hoping.

Roeder ought to shut up tbh.

Blasphemy. You just wait 'til ToonAmy sees this and there'll be a fatwa* (*or Christian equivalent) on your arse... I admit that made me giggle ... but seriously dude don't get the big man upstairs angry right now. We need all the help we can get. We'll probably end up with McClaren now

I really do think we have to commend ourselves for surviving the onslaught of mind numbing dullness that was Souness, Roeder and then Allardyce. Are you kidding me? These have been or last three managers? How in the world did we pull through? God please we have suffered enough for Freddy's many sins! Have mercy on us!

Hughes scares me I tell you ... it could really go all pear shaped with him. I really hope we aren't seriously looking at him. I'm not convinced we will play great football, and I am not sure he can really take us to the top.

Amen brother, amen. The anticipation is killing me! If only they could just get this thing right. Everyone make sure you say your prayers tonight. No messing around folks.

I must admit Hughes does worry me a little bit. At the very most he could be alright for us, but at the very worst he could be disastrous. Could he be great? I'm not so sure. I agree he does have a bit of a Souness/Alladyce feel to him. At the end of the day you could argue that he is pretty inexperienced and really hasn't achieved much in the game. I'm scared ...

No he'd probably f*** that up as well! He has scored as many league goals as Michael Owen this season and the team he's been playing in have conceded less goals than us and have twice as many clean sheets. Not such a laughing stock eh? True. Still wouldn't have him back though. The guy is always on the verge of self destructing no matter what anyone says. Anyway, please don't even bring up Micahel Owen okay. It's just depressing. The sight of him playing football (if you can call it that) almost brings me to tears. Sad, sad, sad sight nowadays. An absolute catastrophe of a signing. Owen should just call it a day and become a jockey.

Milner, Duff & Geremi for Bentley. Worth a shot. Milner and Duff alone would probably be sufficient.

I agree with you about our current position not being ideal for someone who has never worked in the premiership and who might not even be familiar with our squad of players. Unlike Sven going to City, we are not in the middle of the summer, but instead the middle of January with half the transfer window gone. Someone like Hughes would certainly get to grips with things a lot quicker.

I'd like to keep Milner, thanks. Why would you want to do something silly like that?

Duff would refuse to go there and they couldn't afford his wages anyway. Send Milner and £7 million and they might bite.

PANIC ALERT!!! Hughes about to sign Amdy Faye to replace Robbie Savage! If this is true then forget Mark Hughes. Yikes!

Bramble as mascot?

Hasn't there already been a press release from the club saying they aren't looking at Al? Would be madness and another sign of desperation to go back on that imo. Keegan is finished stop this nonsense. He is a bit loopy these days as well. I meany Shearer as Houllier's number 2. What does any of what I said have to do with Keegan too? Seems like your the one whose gone a bit loopy parky!

Houllier would be a solid appointment. However, Houllier with Shearer would be really good. I think Shearer would be able to express to Houllier the feelings of the fans and what type of football we would like to see. Lyon still looked great going forward with Houllier in charge and so hopefully it would just be a case of getting in the right players. It would be great to have someone who could attract the top talent from the French league to the club too.

Your family member or Houlliers' family member? This is quite critical. I certainly believe Mort ahead of Redknapp. I believe Redknapp wanted the job as long as he could continue to live down south (because his wife wouldn't let them move) and we weren't having it and so he then came out and said he turned it down. I think that would have come up pretty early and so I doubt we offered him the job.

No way, just turned down a the Australia job after getting a huge payrise from Zenit. Well maybe he's trying to make up for it by working with at least one Australian in Mark Viduka?

I can't help but feel that because we are in the middle of the season, and we are not exactly in the strongest of positions at the moment, we will go for someone who has premiership experience and who is familiar with our team. We really do need the new manager to hit the ground running so to speak. We can't afford to have someone from abroad come in and not now how shitty the likes of Smith are. Therefore if we do get a foreigner it is more likely to be someone like Houllier or Jol who have coached in the premier league.

Dutch coach Dick Advocat was claimed to be on our list by one of the papers yesterday. Not many people on here have mentioned him though. Anyone have any thoughts?

Got to move on mate. We've signed plenty of players over the years and missed out on plenty of others. Yeah ... It's just shocking and so uncalled for. Shepherd had some serious issues. I'm happy everything associated with him is now completely gone, including Allardyce. A completely fresh start is necessary.

Can you imagine if we had signed Anelka and Boa Morte instead of Luque and Owen?! Absolutely gut wrenching. Really disgusted by this.

We are taking an absolute hammering in the media this week. This sucks ...