Houllier tipped for Man City job

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The French coach has been linked with a return to England to manage Manchester City since leaving Lyon last month and Smith, who knows the 59-year-old well from their time managing Merseyside rivals Everton and Liverpool respectively, believes any side managing to acquire Houllier's services can count themselves fortunate.

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Out of work: Houllier wants a return to English football

Smith told www.leaguemanagers.com: "I don't think there's any doubt, he made an impact on the Premiership before and he did a great job at Liverpool when he was there.

"I think he's an obvious target for Premiership clubs who would take into account what he's done at both Liverpool and Lyon.

"I don't think that there's any doubt that whichever club gets Gerard will be handling one of the best managers throughout the whole of Europe."

Houllier led Liverpool to a treble of trophies - the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup - in 2001 and second in the table a year later - their best Premiership finish..

The 59-year-old inherited a side already dominating the domestic scene in France when he took charge of Lyon in 2005 and the Scot believes Houllier deserves credit for maintaining the high standards set by predecessor Paul Le Guen.

"He's continued the level of success at Lyon and people should never underestimate that," Smith added.

"Although Lyon had four Championships in a row when Gerard joined, that's not an easy situation to take over because it's never easy to keep it going all the time.

"You have to find new ways of motivating players who are winning Championships every season. He took over, handled it very well and they have won two titles under him.

"They had a near-miss at the Champions League in his first season and last season like everybody else the margin of error when you are operating in the Champions League is very tight indeed.

"They just missed out in terms of the results that had could have gone in Lyon's favour and they didn't."