Gerard Houllier and rumours of his departure

Overnight a big stir has been caused on Twitter and Facebook with a strong rumour that Randy Lerner has given Gerard Houllier the ultimatum of stepping down now or being sacked after the Chelsea game. All of this stemmed from Houllier not going home on the team coach and also from him having an argument with Lichaj about his performance against Manchester City.

I don't know what to make of this situation.

Part of me wants us to just get rid of him and get Martin Jol in and start all over again. But that's just not realistic at the minute. We've identified all of our transfer targets and have started to make moves on them and tie up some bids and medicals.

I would be happy with Houllier staying, if he showed some personality and enthusiasm. I watch all of his interviews (and I'm going to the Chelsea press conference on Friday at Bodymoor Heath) and he just doesn't seem to show much personality anymore. At the beginning he was funny, lively, smiling, now he's just depressed. It's obvious this is rubbing off on the players as whenever we go 1-0 down it's a case of how low can we keep this scoreline, not how can we get back into the game. Don't get me wrong, I've always been confident of Houllier and I would love nothing more than for us to win our next five games and go on an amazing run in both the cup and league and for Houllier to be branded as a hero but I just can't see that happening.

Under Houllier we won't go on winning runs, we'll get the odd win here and there 2-1 or 3-2, we won't keep many clean sheets and we will barely score. That is, of course, if we don't make signings in January.

If Houllier is trusted with money for this January, he will be here for this season, the Summer transfer window, and probably up until January - if we don't get relegated. It's probably too short notice now to get someone like Jol in and to identify his targets and approach them and get them all in in time.

There was a point in yesterday's game where Houllier said to Mcallister "What do we do?" and Mcallister just shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Fuck knows".

I'll just say one more thing - when things are going well with Houllier it's great and everything is rosy, but when things go to pot he is not the man to get us out of it. He cannot raise spirits or encourage a fight back mentality. That's what worries me about him. He has the potential to be a great manager and for us to win things under him and that is great as that's what we all want - but when things are bad under him, boy they can become bad.

It's not looking great but I don't think sacking him now is the right decision, in my opinion. Just look at Newcastle. He is trying to make us play an attractive game of football for the long term but in the short term it's not working with the players we have. Maybe Houllier does just need some time. Or maybe he should just go. We'll see what Lerner does over the next few weeks because if we lose any more games in succession this surely cannot go on any longer?