Gérard Houllier learns to roll with the punches in face of flak

Travel to any of the distant outposts where Fifa or Uefa place their forums about football development, ask any of the elite managers in the world game, and the consensus about the new Aston Villa coach is pretty universal: Gérard Houllier is an admired football man with knowledge and ideas well worth listening to. Ask Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger how highly they rate this particular peer. Consult the educators in poorer countries who feel indebted for the expertise he passes on. You will be hard pressed to find a single bad word. So why has Houllier's return to the sharp end of management been met with a degree more scepticism than enthusiasm? It is not just in the streets around Villa Park that his appointment has been greeted with ambivalence. Back home, his protracted farewell from his job at the French football federation – with which he has been connected for decades and has performed the role of technical director for the past three years – has also been mixed. While the French are thankful for the valuable work he has done in overseeing the development of the next generation of players, his reputation took a fearful hit-by-association when the Raymond Domenech disaster came to such a damaging head at the World Cup in South Africa. It has hurt Houllier deeply that he has taken a share of the flak – and the worst of it has been scathing – for the implosion that engulfed the national team over the summer. Even though he had no direct say in team affairs, the public and the media have been unforgiving about his role in keeping Domenech in place far beyond what should have been his sell-by date. It was Houllier who stood up to back Domenech after a dismal showing at Euro 2008. It was Houllier's word that carried enough weight for the federation to keep the lamest of ducks afloat for 2010. The fact he backtracked once a woeful World Cup qualification campaign got under way, urging the powers that be to bring out the guillotine before the rot became incurable, did not get him off the hook. By then it was apparently too late and on France stumbled until they jumped off a cliff in South Africa. One of Houllier's nicknames in the aftermath of this mess was Pontius Pilate. He was perceived as the man who made the big judgment calls – and didn't call them well at all. "It is something funny," he reflects. "Suppose there was a plane crash and the black box shows the pilot made some mistakes. I was not the pilot. I was not the co-pilot. I was not the steward. I was not the hostess. I was not even a passenger on the plane, but I got blamed." And this brings us to the crux of the Houllier image in France. On a technical level, he remains a figure to be respected. On a political level, he is seen as having bungled. Houllier is, by nature, a sensitive man, someone who struggles to conceal his emotions, and if there is any good to come out of what has been a painful and unexpected backlash, it is the fact it has pushed him into a new challenge. As he is fond of saying, "a crisis is always an opportunity". The chance to get the hell out of French football politics has come at just the right time. The sanctity of the training pitch calls. The smell of the grass and the sound of leather boots thumping at footballs cannot come soon enough, and this invigorated 63-year-old intends to throw himself into the challenge at Bodymoor Heath. After the comparatively sedate desk job and ambassadorial roles that have occupied him over the past few seasons, the obvious concern, with so much to launch into, is whether Houllier's health is robust enough for the physical and mental pressures ahead. He has always claimed an emergency heart operation in 2001 should not preclude him from his calling. "When people told me I had to stop being a manager, I told them I would rather stop breathing than give up football," he said. At his unveiling as Villa manager in Birmingham, he explained he had no reservations whatsoever. "My last check-up was on August 4 and I was given a clean bill of health," he said. "I needed to make sure my body was ready for the challenge. I am fitter than I was at any stage when I was with Lyon. I am even fitter than when I was at Liverpool. I have regular check-ups and there have been no murmurs or any problems. Touch wood. "I am still in contact with the same surgeon who did the operation when I was in Liverpool. He was with me to catch up in August. I meet him on a friendly basis as often as is possible." He concedes he did have to convince his family that this was the right choice. "They are happy I am doing what I like to do. I wanted to be in a club again and with players every day," he says. "The pressure in the Premier League is probably higher. You don't sleep every night because sometimes you come home so late. But my family know I am fitter and healthier for what is maybe my last challenge." Much of the judgment on his suitability to return to the Premier League has been clouded by his laboured latter days at Liverpool, a spell he concedes was difficult in the aftermath of his illness, but it is worth noting there are a couple of areas of France that have been loth to join in the Houllier bashing. In Lyon, where he won two French titles as recently as 2006 and 2007, and came within a whisker of a Champions League semi-final, and at Paris Saint-Germain, with whom he claimed Ligue 1 in 1986, he is fondly remembered. And not just for success. His teams played stylishly, too. In club football, he has won trophies everywhere he has worked in the past 25 years. Houllier has another nickname in France – Culbuto . It is a children's toy, a figure with a ball-shaped bottom that always lands upright no matter how hard you throw it or in which direction it falls. Back on his own two managerial feet at Villa Park, Houllier is raring to prove he can stay that way.