GERARD HOULLIER DOES ME GREAT TURN AND I WISH I COULD REPAY HIM WITH LOTS OF WINS!

What a week for Gerard Houllier! He does me a great favour the lunchtime after Aston Villa's Carling Cup defeat at local rivals Birmingham.He kept his word by joining me for the annual Lord Taverners Xmas lunch 'Gary Newbon and his sporting friends' which this year raised £20,000 for disabled sportspeople.Gerard,who I knew well in his Liverpool days,agreed to take part in a Q and A with Birmingham manager Alex McLeish,ITV's football presenter and mad West Brom fan Adrian Chiles and myself.The verdict of the 410 sell-out audience at the Warwickshire Cricket ground in Edgbaston was a huge success.McLeish paid public tribute to Houllier for showing when many others would have changed their mind after defeat.But Gerard faced another defeat-3-0 at his old club Liverpool on the Monday and somehwhat ill-advisedly commented afterwards:"If I have to lose 3-0 thern Id prefer it to be to them as I like Liverpool"....of course Gerard did not want to lose but his remarks really upset the Villa fans.General Charles Krulak,who seems to spend much of his time reading the fans website and appeasing them in his role as aide/friend to owner Randy Lerner,added fuel to the flames by posting"Those are looking for Gerard Houllier's head,who are asking that he be fired have the right to feel that way.They buy the tickets and they can say what they like"...who needs enemies with colleagues like that.What sort of support is that.You can bet your boots that it would be completely different all round in that had been Villa's first defeat instead of latest!.Then its revealed that defender James Collins was in a nightclub hours before the squad left for Liverpool.What sort of idiot is he?I hope for Gerard's skae Villa beat other local rivals West Bromwich Albion at home this weekend.Gerard deserves a break...and he has just been given the dreaded vote of confidence.Just what a decent,gentleman does not need!