Gerard Houllier: The Liverpool Revolution (Hardcover)

For the passing neutral, with no great knowledge of Liverpool FC circa 1990-present, the book would probably be given pass marks. It would come across as reasonably informative and give the neutral some sort of insight into a traumatic period where Liverpool went from being the number one team in the country, to a complete laughing stock and back to something approaching potential greatness. The last part largely due to the professionalism, passion and all-round managerial ability of Monsieur Houllier.

Unfortunately, for the scrupulous Reds fan, it is impossible to see past the many factual errors that the author makes and, therefore, no enjoyment is forthcoming. Also, because there are so many inaccuracies that any fan that has followed Liverpool through the past decade-or-so can easily identify, it becomes impossible to believe anything the author tells you. It was getting to the point where it wouldn’t have been a complete surprise if the author had suggested that Phil Babb could play a bit.

A couple of irritating examples:

1. The author, when commenting on the Souness years, laments the decision to play the newly arrived, and struggling, Nigel Clough every week, when the mercurial Peter Beardsley was available to step in and take the pressure off the new boy. Someone should have told Kelly that: Beardsley left the club in 1991; Clough arrived in 1993.
2. Discussing Liverpool’s awful run around December/January time of the 2001/02 season, the author states that Liverpool went into the match with Manchester United at Old Trafford five points behind the leaders after only winning one of their last nine premiership games. No problems so far. In the very next sentence, however, he claims that Liverpool had, prior to the poor run, been 11 points behind United, but that the mancs had suffered a poor run of their own. The author obviously didn’t stop to think for a nanosecond exactly how Liverpool, with only one win in nine remember, had managed to gain six points on the team that at that point in time was still leading the table. Liverpool were, of course, 11 points clear of Manchester before their run of poor form commenced. Manchester, far from suffering a bout of poor form of their own, had put together an impressive run of results that had turned an 11-point deficit into a 5-point lead. Honestly, if Kelly cannot get his facts correct on something that happened less than two years ago then how can he be trusted to provide accurate data of more historical events?

There are so many other examples that we could be here listing all the errors from now until the time that Everton manage to finish above Liverpool in the table (or even take a point when the two meet at Goodison). It’s just not worth the effort though…

Alas, all is not lost to Liverpool fans who want to read about the good things that Houllier has done for the club and who would like more of an insight into what makes the man tick. Conrad Mewton has written a book: “The Red Revolution – Liverpool under Houllier”.

Redmen and women alike would be well advised to pick up a copy of Mewton’s book if it’s a choice between one and the other.