Liverpool's backroom riddle

Liverpool's Jacques Crevoisier may take a bigger role

BBC Sport Online chief football writer Phil McNulty investigates the options open to Liverpool's power brokers as manager Gerard Houllier recovers from open heart surgery.

Gerard Houllier's eye for detail and desire to map out Liverpool's future may thrust a fellow countryman into the spotlight as he recovers from emergency heart surgery.

Houllier is likely to be missing from his office at Liverpool's Melwood training headquarters for months - but his influence will still be felt by the men he has left behind to guide the club's immediate future.

Liverpool's hierarchy have insisted Houlllier will return. They will not even want to contemplate any other end to this sad episode in Anfield history.

The Anfield board made all their plans around Houllier - and Houllier made all his plans around Liverpool.

He is the single irreplaceable figure at the club, with his fingerprints on every facet of Liverpool life.

Lee and Crevoisier with Houllier

It is highly unlikely they will take up former boss Roy Evans on his suggestion to call Kenny Dalglish out of exile and back to his beloved Anfield on a temporary basis.

The balance between the new and old is too delicate for that to be affected, unwittingly of course, by bringing in an outsider until Houllier's football future is settled.

But it is now time for the new generation of what was once the famous Liverpool bootroom to step forward.

Assistant manager Phil Thompson, with no little irony, takes charge while Houllier is away.

Thompson was sacked as Liverpool reserve team coach in acrimonious circumstances in 1992 by former boss Graeme Souness, just weeks after the Scot had recovered from major heart surgery.

Now Thompson, the aggressive antithesis to the thoughtful Houllier, will take centre stage with a bristling approach and unshakeable self-belief.

He was the surprise choice to assist Houllier when the Frenchman took sole charge in late 1998, the barking sergeant major sidekick to the shrewd planner.

Thompson is an abrasive figure who pulls no punches, no matter how high profile the player.

Just ask Robbie Fowler, who was forced to apologise to Thompson after a training ground bust-up earlier this season.

It may, however, be interesting to hear how Liverpool's players respond to being dropped by Thompson as opposed to being "squad rotated" by Houllier.

But one of the key figures who may emerge from this period of Anfield turmoil is the little-known Jacques Crevoisier, a stealthy summer appointment by Houllier.

He replaced Houllier's great friend Patrice Bergues, when he became general manager of Lens last summer.

Crevoisier worked for Uefa's technical department as a senior manager - and was a close confidant of Houllier, who also works as a high-ranking adviser to European football's governing body.

Thompson takes charge

He shares many of Houllier's football philosophies, guiding France's under-19 team to the European title in 2002 and helping the under-16s qualify for the European championships this year.

Indeed, the pair's approach is so well-aligned that eight years ago they worked on a book called "Entraineur: Competence et Passion" about the mental preparation required to succeed in football.

Crevoisier may now assume greater significance behind the scenes working with Thompson, as well as Sammy Lee.

Lee is a highly-respected member of England coach Sven Goran Eriksson's back up team.

But there is no doubt Houllier's serious illness has dealt a devastating blow to Liverpool's immediate future.

Liverpool's board will be in no hurry to even consider alternative plans.

And this is because, like so many things, the whole shape of the club's destiny rests entirely upon Gerard Houllier.