A French revelation

Houllier has a passion for Liverpool

BBC Sport Online chief football writer Phil McNulty, who has followed Gerard Houllier's work at close quarters since his appointment as Liverpool manager, profiles the Anfield boss.

Gerard Houllier's all-consuming passion for Liverpool Football Club has led to comparisons with legendary Anfield manager Bill Shankly.

Houllier wisely chose to sidestep any likeness with Shankly after guiding Liverpool out of the years of under-achievement to a glittering treble of the FA Cup, Uefa Cup and Worthington Cup last season.

Houllier has the same intensity as Shankly

And as he recovers from major surgery that may remove him from the Liverpool manager's chair for months, he will also ignore Shankly's oft-quoted comments about football being more important than life and death.

But Houllier is undoubtedly touched with the same intensity and desire as the Scottish managerial trinity of Shankly, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein.

As the first journalist to be introduced to Houllier after his appointment as joint Liverpool manager in 1998, he exchanged warm pleasantries with me before announcing: "I must leave now to meet my new family."

It was a colourful turn of phrase - but he has since become the father figure for the Liverpool family as it has hinted that the glories of a former dynasty may be about to return.

Houllier has thrown himself into the family circle, keeping a particularly close eye on the development of the younger members of his flock such as Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.

It's a very exciting time for us now - but it's also very tiring

Gerard Houllier talking recently to Phil McNulty

England have been beneficiaries of Houllier's work at Liverpool - but Anfield is first, last and everything in his football world.

And, like anyone who has kept in close contact with Houllier in the last three years, it is easy to relate stories about a man who lives and breathes for football, and controls every aspect of the sprawling Anfield empire with meticulous efficiency and an all-seeing eye for the smallest detail.

A recent conversation with Houllier, arranged to take place late at night on the day he arrived back from the Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund in Germany, was postponed because he was out of contact on club business.

He had returned from Germany only hours earlier, but was already moving on the next item on the Anfield agenda. He was expected back that evening - but not until it was far too late for most with normal working patterns.

Houllier hurled himself into the task of reviving Liverpool with boundless energy and acumen. He was devastated when his side failed to make the Champions League on the final day of his first full season in charge against Bradford City.

And his quest for perfection had already been illustrated only a few days earlier when a damaging home defeat against Leicester City saw Houllier spend most of the early hours of the following morning studying the video hunting down clues to where it all went wrong.

He is also a man willing to share his thoughts, and perhaps discuss possible mistakes.

Houllier once rang me on a Sunday morning to ask what was the general feeling about his refusal to substitute Sami Hyypia in a game at Manchester United - during which time Liverpool crucially lost a lead.

He was told most people had thought he had made a mistake, particularly as Hyypia failed to return, but he still felt he was right and that was good enough for Houllier.

Houllier's passion for Liverpool comes from his early days as a student in the city in the late sixties

BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty

But it is this single-minded approach, his passionate and determined attempt to put Liverpool back to what he regards as their rightful place, that has won the hearts and respect of the club's fans.

They sometimes shake their heads at his famous squad rotation, but then study results and accept he gets it right almost every time.

And even when one or two former Anfield figures turned on Houllier after a shaky start to his reign, the supporters could see a structure was being put in place and demonstrated admirable patience.

Houllier's passion for Liverpool comes from his early days as a student in the city in the late sixties - and it was the perfect place for him to emerge from the relative comfort of his post as France's technical director back into club management.

He deliberately based his home near Liverpool's city centre so he could see and hear how fans felt and what they were thinking.

And it is has made him more of a man of the Anfield people than perhaps even he realises himself.

Now, however, he may need to adopt a slightly more hands-off approach, relying on his trusted backroom team.

Houllier quietly brought in French youth team guru Jacques Crevoisier to work alongside him, Phil Thompson and Sammy Lee this summer.

Thompson will relish his temporary added responsibility, while Lee is already a highly-regarded member of Sven Goran Eriksson's England set-up.

But the man who holds it all together, who lays the plans and commands the fierce loyalty of his players, is Houllier.

He will soon be setting his sights on a return to the office where he spends vast man-hours of his waking time planning Liverpool's next step.

But even the workaholic, focused Houllier may be forced to take a step back after his health scare.

Football is not, as Shankly so wrongly stated, more than a matter of life and death.

And certainly not at Liverpool, which has known triumph and tragedy perhaps more than any other club.