Houllier takes a lot of stick over his signings but his good ones (Hyypia, Henchoz, Dudek, Kirkland, Kewell, Hamann, Riise, Finnan) have been excellent signings and all for very reasonable money (Hyypia = £4m, Ferdinand = £30m :mrgreen: ). He's also bought some young players that show real potential (Le Tallec, Pongolle, Cheyrou, Diouf (let's not forget that he's only 22!) and Traore), and while some of those may not have really shown their best yet, they definitely are all talented and there is no way that we should expect them to set the world on fire from day 1.
I'd also include Heskey in the good signing bracket, now I'll admit that his goal return has been poor, but his overall workrate and his understanding with Owen has been excellent, and if that wasn't the case then he wouldn't have been picked for England!
On paper, our starting XI for next season (assuming that Cisse does sign and Owen stays) is excellent, and hopefully will include Le Tallec who I think has the potential to be a great player, and certainly better than Christian Ronaldo.
I also think that the effect of Owen being injured for such a large part of the season can't be under emphasised. Imagine the effect on Man Utd or Arsenal if V. Nistelrooy or Henry had missed half the season, do you think that Forlan or Kanu would have stepped in and scored the goals instead?
Personally, my biggest fault of Houllier isn't his signings, but the fact that he seems to refuse to play the right side, and plays players out of position so much - Henchoz at full back?!?!?!?!?. Also, we started the season playing some great attacking football, but seem to have reverted to the long ball defensive style again. I'm also amazed that he hasn't experimented with Diouf's position a bit more, I would have thought that he was perfect for a role in the hole behind the front two, or even playing Diouf and Kewell behind Owen. We've got a lot of attacking options, let's use them!