There is no rivalry in MLS quite like the one between D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls. Seattle and Portland may have history dating back to the original NASL; the Galaxy and Chivas may be the only true city derby; Toronto may be about to set a league record for traveling supporters in Montreal.
The New York Red Bulls have yet to make a final decision on a head coach, but they have apparently found the man to give the club a strong American influence on the coaching staff.
Sources have told SBI that the Red Bulls are closing in on hiring former U.
With two months remaining before the start of the season, the New York Red Bulls are still without a head coach. Many options have been discussed – both domestic and European – but none have been confirmed.
SBI can now safely cross off two names from that list.
It seems Gerard Houllier is looking to do more than simply trim the Red Bulls roster.
"Futnet" out of Brazil reports the Red Bulls Global Director of Soccer traveled out to the Soccerex facility in Rio de Janiero to speak with 37-year-old attacking midfielder Juninho Pernambucano.
Just days after announcing the hiring of a new GM and director of global soccer operations, the new guys in charge are already said to be looking for a replacement for current head coach Hans Backe.
Yes, the same club that is in the middle of a playoff chase is reportedly searching for a new coach.
The New York Red Bulls are in the middle of a playoff race, and could still conceivably win an MLS Cup title, but that isn't stopping the people now running the Red Bulls from making plans for major off-season changes.
After disposing of former general manager and sporting director Erik Soler earlier this week, the Red Bulls are already lining up a replacement for head coach Hans Backe, and while several names have already surfaced as alleged targets, sources tell SBI that one coach has emerged as a front-runner to lead the Red Bulls in 2013.
Erik Soler is done in New York as the club's GM. (Getty Images)
Why must the New York Red Bulls continue to make it easy for us to mock them? Seriously.
Yesterday was just another day in the life of the New York franchise. Just when it seemed this team had turned a corner this year and had gotten some form of consistency on and off the field, the upper management decided to make a change, in the most random time of the season.
The New York Red Bulls have named former AS Monaco president Jerome de Bontin as the Major League Soccer club's new general manager. He replaces Erik Soler who takes an advisory role, with de Bontin focusing on the business side. Red Bulls global head of soccer Gerard Houllier will run the soccer side for both the New York and Salzburg clubs.
The New York Red Bulls announced some major changes in the club's leadership on Tuesday.
Jérôme de Bontin, who served for a year as president of AS Monaco in France, has been appointed general manager to oversee business operations. Gérard Houllier, the former Liverpool and French national team manager who was selected to take charge of global soccer operations for Red Bull in July, will take the role as sporting director for the club.
Gerard Houllier, Rafael Benitez and Kenny Dalglish have all lost their jobs at Liverpool mainly due to spending crazy money for players who were not fit to don the red shirt of Liverpool.
1. El Hadji Diouf:
Gerard Houllier bought the Senegal striker after the 2002 World Cup, in which they beat the mighty France, for £10 million, I seem to remember at the time.
After the debacle of the last day of the Transfer-Window in which Liverpool failed to sign a couple
of strikers, then the subsequent defeat at home to Arsenal, who did sign two goalscorers in
Podolski and Giroud.
I have every sympathy for new Liverpool Manager, Brendan Rodgers.
He is now working with one hand tied behind his back, with the loss of Dirk Kuyt, Maxi, Craig
Bellamy and Andy Carroll.
Sami Hyypia was at Liverpool Football Club for a fantastic 10 years. As Houllier's signing in 1999,
I grew up with the Finnish defender commanding the Liverpool back four. From a relatively unknown
element brought into the Liverpool side he flourished into a fan favourite and a legend in his own
right.
Has Liverpool hired a new manager yet? No? Right, moving on...
* Moneyball moneyball moneyball moneyball. Or maybe not. Over on the Anfield Wrap, Gareth
Roberts drops a weighty article that moves beyond the oft-used term in an attempt to plot just
where Fenway Sports Group may try to take Liverpool in the coming years, with a focus on
Soccernomics, the recruitment of 20-22 year olds, success through the purchase of troubled talent,
and Lyon:
So while they have had six managers since 2000—Jacques Santini, Paul Le Guen, Gerard Houllier,
Alain Perrin, Claude Puel and current boss Remi Garde—the president and Bernard Lacombe—who has
been technical manager, trainer, manager and now special advisor to the president—have
remained.
1. Rafa Benitez Let's talk about facts: Rafa is still loved by the Liverpool faithful, is settled
on Merseyside and is available. Little wonder that he's gone straight in as the bookies' favourite
for the job. 2. Graeme Souness Woah, woah, woah, Rafa. If the Reds are going to continue this retro
manager vibe then [.
People can talk about rebuilding. Even if the point of last summer's transfer strategy was to
avoid long settling-in periods that would lead to 2011-12 becoming a rebuilding season. Even if it
now appears that next season will end up something of a rebuilding season, too, with few
entertaining realistic hopes of a return to Champions League action twelve months hence.
The BBC read somewhere understands that, after surgically removing Damien Comolli from their
staff yesterday for fluffing all their dollars on snakeoil and unicorn teeth, Liverpool owners FSG
are eyeing up none other than Johan Cruyff (who, it says here, used to be a footballer of some
distinction but is perhaps better known as the man from the asteroid) to step into
the breach at Anfield.
Former Spurs, Aston Villa and Newcastle start David Ginola has lost his legal battle against Gerard
Houllier. The winger's slander and defamation case was dismissed by a French court. Houllier's
lawyer Jean-Claude Guidicelli claimed the court had found "irregularities" in Ginola's case,
Reuters reports.
Gerard Houllier has said that no amount of cup success will quell the "obsession" with the league
title at Anfield -- but insisted that Kenny Dalglish needs at least another year to make a success
of his second tenure as Liverpool manager.
The Frenchman, Liverpool manager from 1998 to 2004, said there is "too much expectation" at
Anfield, but reflected also on the way that managers' reputations diminish too abruptly in
football.
Yesterday's toothless defeat to Sunderland was the worst display Liverpool have put in in a long
time. And to think we had over £100 million of 'talent' on the field during the game. That defeat
is our third in a row and the first time that has happened since October 2003 under Gerard
Houllier.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Goal: ‘Until my death they are going to talk to me about this' – Why ex-Newcastle
star David Ginola will meet former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in...
Sores nearly two decades old still remain open for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain winger, and the
constant barracking from his former national team boss has simply become too much
View the full story here: Goal
A news article on 2012-01-09 13:09:00 from: Goal
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Gerard Houllier has managed some exceptional players during his career but in a recent interview,
Liverpool's treble-winning boss reserved special praise for former Man United player David
Beckham.Speaking to France Football, Houllier had nothing but good things to say about Beckham, who
could be on the verge of a move to Paris St.
Paul Lambert has become Aston Villa's fourth manager in two years after walking out on Norwich
City.
A Villa club statement read simply:
"The Board of Aston Villa are delighted to confirm that Paul Lambert has been appointed Villa
manager."
Norwich prohibited Lambert from talking to Villa earlier this week and refused his resignation
in light of not being allowed to discuss a move to Villa.
Paul Lambert is now the new manager of Aston Villa in a widely anticipated move. The Villans can
now hope to return to the free flowing, attacking football of the Martin O'Neill and Gerard
Houllier days. Under Alex McLeish, Villa was a one note defensive grinding machine playing
anti-football.
What Are The Prospects For Aston Villa? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Aston Villa on Monday sacked Alex McLeish. You can hardly blame them for sacking him. McLeish is
so negative magnets in his presence never attract and only repel. He could fall on some tube tracks
and not be electrocuted.
There is something rather appropriate about the fact that the first post-season managerial
casualty in the Premier League should have turned out to be Aston Villa's Alex McLeish. It was,
after all, McLeish's arrival at Villa Park last summer that was one of the most perplexing seen
anywhere in recent times, and has been one of the most bitterly opposed by supporters of the club
at which the appointment was made.
Aston Villa: what if the problem is the club and not McLeish? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
This Premier League season has been a memorable one, with the title race again going down to the
wire and potentially being settled by a Manchester derby, the new arrivals Norwich and Swansea
reminding everyone that the gap in class between the Premier League and the Championship actually
isn't all that great, and the relegation battle is probably one of the tightest battles there has
been in the Premier League since it's inception 20 years ago.
Jamie Carragher has told Liverpool's fans and owners that whoever replaces Kenny Dalglish the club
are in no position to challenge for the Premier league title.
It is now 22 years since Liverpool won their 18th, and last title, and the club has just endured
its equal lowest finish in that time, eighth.
"I've agreed to keep communication open with [Preston North End manager] Graham Westley just in
case I come across a miracle cure," began a brief statement by former Liverpool striker Neil
Mellor. "But realistically, and regrettably, this is the end of my playing days."
It was sad news for the player, and more than a touch sad too for the countless Liverpool fans
who will fondly remember the massive role Mellor played in the road to Istanbul and Champions
League glory in 2005.
"I've agreed to keep communication open with [Preston North End manager] Graham Westley just in
case I come across a miracle cure," began a brief statement by former Liverpool striker Neil
Mellor. "But realistically, and regrettably, this is the end of my playing days."
It was sad news for the player, and more than a touch sad too for the countless Liverpool fans
who will fondly remember the massive role Mellor played in the road to Istanbul and Champions
League glory in 2005.
The League Cup Final in 2001 will always be a special one for Liverpool supporters, as it proved
to be the first of three cup triumphs for Gerard Houllier's side on the season. League silverware
proved to be too big an ask as Manchester United would go on to win their third consecutive title,
ten points ahead of second place Arsenal and eleven in front of Liverpool, but each cup competition
provided something special for Liverpool, and the League Cup was no different.
Gabriel Agbonlahor and the sad decline of Aston Villa Football Club: There's something awfully depressing about Aston Villa's recent slump – something that has everything to do with Gerard Houllier, Darren Bent (7.8) and even Emile "Really big in...
The haste with which football clubs dispose of their managers has been discussed in depth on
here before. It has long been a peculiarity of this particular sport that managerial positions have
been treated so frivolously by clubs, and the folly of doing so has been shown up in fairly strong
terms over the last couple of days with the release of Aston Villa's disastrous financial results
for last year.
First off, a confession: I don't like biographies. In particular, I don't like player biographies.
Too often they're pretentious, ego-massaging,bank account boosting exercises in self-promotion that
offer little in the way of genuine insight. Unless, of course, you consider tales of lads' nights
out or those of puerile banter as falling under the category of insightful.
