Houllier insists his job is safe

Gerard Houllier believes he is ‘in the wrong club’ if rumours that he is battling to save his job at Aston Villa are true.

Houllier, 63, took over at Villa Park in September but has endured a difficult season to date with the side struggling in 16th place in the English Premier League.

But the Frenchman has rejected the notion that his position is under threat, insisting he has the backing of Villa owner Randy Lerner.

“Am I fighting for my job? If I have to do that, then I am in the wrong club. I don’t think so,” Houllier said.

“I know that at some stage you go through difficult times. In difficult times you see the people around you – and they have been top class.”

“Mr Lerner knows we are going through a difficult period. Even with Martin (O’Neill) there was a period when they weren’t winning games.”

“What’s a fair timescale for me to be judged fairly? Well I didn’t expect to go that (far) down (the table).”

“But at the same time I think it’s an exciting challenge, even more so. What I need is to get some players fighting together to get some results and see where we are in February.”

The former Liverpool and Lyon boss also dismissed reports that an increase in training workload has led to a rift with sections of the playing squad.

“We train more. When there is a change, there is always resistance to change,” he said.

“There have been a lot of headlines about double training sessions but we only had one such session – and that was during an international break.”

“But if you say ‘would you go back to training less and having a different style of play’ I would say no.”