"The day I got caught spying on Houllier" by Joe Simpson

With the International break upon us and me now yearning for my regular club football fix – yeah even now - I have been reminiscing about seasons from the past as you do. Thinking of some of the great seasons we had and some of the things that happened that stick in my head. One such memory comes from our European run in 2001.

In the build up to big matches I am sure I am not the only one who has wondered what type of things the manager says to the players before the game. Due to my total lack of footballing ability I have never came within a million miles of a Premier League dressing room however despite this in the distant past I was lucky enough to get a very small glimpse of how Liverpool FC prepared for a big game and would like to share it with my fellow reds.

Many years ago, whilst I was a student in Liverpool, I worked as room service in a city centre hotel that was lucky enough to have the Liverpool team as regular visitors – they used to stay over the night before matches (for preparation and team spirit purposes I’d imagine). Prior to the matches Liverpool used to have a pre-match team talk in the function area and before we played Roma in 2001 (in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Cup last 16) I decided that this arrangement presented an opportunity too good to miss. So as any good red would I made the executive decision to use my break to listen in to this team talk.

This was quite a risky move as if I was caught listening in it would probably cost me my job – Premier League teams don’t take kindly to being spied on and hotel General Managers don’t take kindly to staff upsetting important clients! Losing my job was not an enticing prospect as I needed the money to pay for books for my stud… nah like most students I needed the money to pay my keep and to fund the student lifestyle of cheap booze and junk food but all the same I didn’t fancy losing my job! However in the knowledge that the chance to hear something like this was an extremely rare opportunity I decided to go for it.

I waited until the talk had just started and then entered the function area and went into a function room that was next to the LFC room and took a chair and sat right outside the LFC function room – where nobody could see me – and due to the gaps under the movable room partitions I could hear every word said by Gerard Houllier in preparation for one of our biggest matches of the season.

It was a long time ago now so obviously I can’t remember everything but I can remember that unsurprisingly Gerard was very authoritative - at one stage there must have been some talking because he said in a sharp tone “Something wrong Joe?” presumably to Joe Corrigan who immediately responded “no boss”. I think Joe was probably responding to some friendly verbals from one of the team as the players tended to have a lot of banter with Joe in and around the hotel (who for those who don’t know looked like a guy who didn’t leave much on the plate – I can certainly relate).

I remember another occasion when there were about 4 players in the lift and Joe went to enter and Robbie Fowler said sorry Joe and pointed to the sign that said something like only room for 12 people or up to 1500 kg! Unsurprisingly Joe told him in no uncertain terms where to go! Needless to say following Houllier nailing that small bit of chatter there was silence from the players and staff unless asked. I loved this as after the tales of the players running amok and almost ruling the roost during the previous few years I really enjoyed the fact that Houllier had helped to make us a professional and disciplined club again.

Surprisingly enough a fair bit of his talk was similar to how the fans imagine it - the pin the press articles on the walls variety with Gerard referencing how in the build up to the first leg Batistuta – and he spat the name out with contempt - had been talking as if they were through already.

Unsurprisingly a lot of the talk focussed on the defence considering the first leg result (for those too young to remember we had won 2 nil in Rome with a brace from Michael Owen) and the attacking talent in the opposition line-up with Gerard saying ‘these Italians think they invented defending and know everything about it, we will show them that they are not the only ones who know how to defend”.

He was praising Henchoz for becoming more aggressive in his defending recently and told him he wanted him to keep snapping into tackles early, he admonished Ziege for wandering everywhere on the pitch in other games and said he would take him off if he did that in this game. He put great store in projecting strength telling the players that he would be angry if he looked at any player in the tunnel before the game and they weren't looking strong and confident - he said none of the players should let their opponents think they could win by showing the wrong body language.


During my impromptu spying session one of the hotel bosses walked into the function area for something or other and needless to say I was in fear of getting my marching orders. He saw me sitting there and had a look of shock on his face – apparently staff sitting on a chair listening to private meetings wasn’t a common occurrence! He stopped and paused a moment – while the adult managerial side of his brain did battle with the childlike fan side of his brain to determine how to deal with this breach of hotel rules – luckily the fan side won out and rather than disciplining me he simply game a small smile and walked off shaking his head. After this let off I thought it would be pushing my luck too far to stay any longer so I reluctantly went back to work. As I walked off I was seriously impressed with what I had heard – sadly I can’t recall it all now - and how it was delivered and I was certain we would win the game that night.

Obviously we didn’t win that game but we got through the tie and went on to win the competition in what was a magical time for us and I am always glad to think I got to have a tiny glimpse into the inner world of the club in that great year and that I got to hear a fair few minutes of Houllier at the absolute peak of his powers.

Joe Simpson

@Wolf_TicketsLFC