Houllier admits: I came back too early after heart op

The Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier, has revealed for the first time that he returned too early from his heart operation. "I probably should have waited a few more weeks," he says.

Houllier resumed his managerial duties in March for the Champions' League second group stage match against Roma. It was a memorable Anfield night with Liverpool winning 2-0 to qualify for the quarter-finals and the Roma manager, Fabio Capello, hugging his French counterpart. But it came just five months after his open-heart surgery in October. "They say normally that you need one month's recovery per hour of surgery," Houllier explains. "Well, my operation was 11 hours, so I should have stayed out for a lot longer. But I felt that it was important to rejoin the team at that time. You don't need to be a psychologist to know that if you are strong, they [the players] are strong; and if you are tired, they are tired."

The 55-year-old Frenchman will always remember that Wednesday night. "It was special because it was not planned," he says. "It was emotional giving the team talk. Capello's actions were very spontaneous, and we tried to do something different tactically against Roma. It was a great moment, but it drained a lot from me."

While Houllier's instincts told him the time was right to take his seat next to his assistant, Phil Thompson, he did seek advice from friends in the world of business before making his important decision. "I sometimes like to have a consultant who works in big firms or big business," he says, "and I will ask my friends, 'What happens if you do this or do that?' It's basically about who motivates a motivator. In this job, you are isolated so you need outside people to bounce ideas off."

As a consequence of his early return, Houllier concedes that he became very tired towards the end of last season. "The last three weeks, I was exhausted," he says. "For the last two games of the campaign, I really had to take a lot out of myself. When it all finished, I was absolutely knackered. That's why not going to the World Cup was the right thing to do. I wanted to be there but I was too weak."

Houllier may have accepted that he needs to delegate more, but that does not mean he intends to stop his hands-on approach. "It doesn't work," he says. "I've had an experience of joint management so I should know. The players need to have only one reference. When it comes to the heart of the job, there can be only one boss."