HOULLIER: O'NEILL LINKS OVER

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier is confident Martin O'Neill will no longer be touted as his successor in the Anfield hot-seat.

The Celtic boss has been widely tipped to replace the Frenchman during what has been a disappointing campaign so far for the Merseyside club.

But Houllier has revealed the two men thrashed out their differences over the phone and he believes the speculation will now end.

He told The Mirror: "As far as Martin O'Neill goes, I don't think the speculation about him and my job will come back again.

"The Martin O'Neill saga has been going on for about 14 months now. To be fair to him, he phoned me. I am pleased that he did that. I value our relationship, as I told him.

"I also told him that in the English press there were no denials from him, nothing to say it was rubbish.

"At the time when the rumours were reaching their height, and in a very light-hearted way I just said Martin must have very good friends in the press because his name keeps coming out.

"As I said maybe he has a very good agent. I know now that he has no agent, by the way."

Houllier is much wiser about the situation in the light of his conversation with O'Neill.

"I think maybe those light-hearted comments had offended him," he said.

"I am sorry about that. But we have sorted it all out now, and there is no problem. Everything is fine.

"In the first stage, yes, the rumours were irritating; then at the second stage it became extremely entertaining.

"It got to the point where Sam Allardyce was being linked with my job last week. That was funny."

PA