Nope your fault for not letting me place an Ibra anytime and United win bet about an hour or so before ko. Every other bet I placed that day lost...
I'm in no rush for Puel to go but like said early in the thread if he were to go I wouldn;t be that bothered. The football is tedious and even when we play well we don;t score many. Signings haven;t helped him much with Hjobjerg and Boufal being very poor. The academy players coming through have been the bright light in the season. Unless of course Marco Silva became available in which case it's bye bye Puel for me.
In truth I dont think he ever had the fans support. He was an outlier selection that nobody had heard of and received more skeptical/bad reports when he got the job than he got good ones. If we had given the job to a high profile manager and made the fans happy we would probably still be in this position because our squad wasn't right for the start of the season and we were hit hard by injury. If it was Pellegrini in charge I doubt he'd be facing the sack, Puel was perceived as a failure before he started and unfortiunately hasn't been able to convince the general populace otherwise.
As much as I know you all want me to quote half a page this bit is very, very true. For once I agree with you Ian. Not once have I heard a Puel song. Sad really.
Here are my comments (in red) on the last ten games, it puts into perspective that things are maybe not as bad as some people are painting them. Remember that they were all played without our best player and a few without our best striker. The team's performances have certainly improved over the season and not too much should be taken from defeats against City and Chelsea as they are certainly on a different level to us. Southampton Results Share Facebook Twitter April 2017 Show last 5 matches and coverage Competition Fixture Date Kick-off Status Show Premier League Southampton0-0Hull City A poor game not helped by Hull's tactics, but they got what the came for. Sat 29 Apr Full time Report Show Premier League Chelsea4-2Southampton A very good first half performance but their second goal changed the game. Tue 25 Apr Full time Report Show Premier League Southampton0-3Manchester City Were outclassed by a very good team on the day. Sat 15 Apr Full time Report Show Premier League West Bromwich Albion0-1Southampton A good away performance to come away with the points Sat 8 Apr Full time Report Show Premier League Southampton3-1Crystal Palace A brilliant performance from Saints, lovely inrticate offensive play. Wed 5 Apr Full time Report Show Premier League Southampton0-0Bournemouth A pretty even game, but we were a bit lucky that Bournemouth missed their penalty Sat 1 Apr Full time Report March 2017 Show last 5 matches and coverage Competition Fixture Date Kick-off Status Show Premier League Tottenham Hotspur2-1Southampton We were well in this game before Manolo got injured and pretty much matched Spurs. Sun 19 Mar Full time Report Show Premier League Watford3-4Southampton Again some lovely football played, but suspect defensively Sat 4 Mar Full time Report February 2017 Show last 5 matches and coverage Competition Fixture Date Kick-off Status Show EFL Cup - Final Manchester United3-2Southampton Desperately unlucky to not win, were the better team on the day. Sun 26 Feb Full time Report Show Premier League Sunderland0-4Southampton Totally dominant performance with some lovely attacking football
Telegraph also reporting that Silva is a leading target should Puel go. Watford also interested, apparently. West Ham had a look but prefer Jokanovic at Fulham. Mirror also reporting Saints want Silva if Puel slumps in the final month and fails his review...
This from an online article which I thought was also a valid point - Ultimately, last season’s Premier League raised expectations to an unrealistic level – Southampton finished above Chelsea and Everton last season, two clubs who brought in new managers and spent big in the summer, and if the Saints were to finish eighth this term, it’d be only those two that have overtaken them. That’s hardly disastrous.
That's twice in one week that we've seen all of the papers go with a story on our managerial situation within a span of a few hours. Either one is running it and the others are copying (always a possibility) or someone's putting it out to a wide audience. The table can be somewhat misleading. Like, if we lose the final match of the season and fall from, say, 9th to 13th, does it swing from a good to a bad season on that result? Conversely last season was much better in a lot of respects than "6th place" really conveys; one result earlier in the year and we'd have been playing for a Champions League spot on the final day of the season, while actually owning the GD tiebreaker with Manchester United (!). So while our position might (and it's still up in the air) not fall off that much, it's a two-way race between ourselves and West Ham for the largest decline in the past season...we're 22 points off with 5 remaining, they're 23 off with 3 to go. Even Sunderland is likely to see less of a drop (the benefits of being really awful last year as well, I guess). None of the teams from 8th down can feel particularly comfortable about the way their seasons have played out, regardless of the final position. Look at West Brom: with four matches remaining, they're in 8th on 44 points. They could well end the year having 'improved' by six positions over last season, and fewer than six points.
Sometimes in life when you've made rapid progression, you have to take a breathe and consolidate before you push on again. I think a points target of around 50 for this season would have been a fair and reasonable target for Puel and the squad to achieve this season. This season has seen the quality rise again in the league if you look at Spurs for example, with the points they have now, they would have been champions last season, but this season they are 4 points behind Chelsea. So, if we win 3 of the remaining 5 games, we'll hit the 50 points and that to me would consolidate our progression, and then give Puel a chance to push on. However, stay on 41-43 points, I would totally understand the club looking at replacing Puel. I think Sunday will be a defining moment where we will see if the players are behind Puel or not. A battering from Liverpool, will see a media and fan frenzy for change .
We are quite unlikely to win 3 of the 5 remaining, though. We'd need to beat both Stoke and Middlesbrough, while also taking 1 of the 3 against Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U. Our current league record against the top six: 0 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses, 6 goals for and 17 against.
Excellent post. Anyone doubting needs to go back and read the thread on here from when he was appointed. Some were selecting his sack by date from the very beginning.
Not true. I remember this was sung for the first few games. "We've got Van Dijk Virgil van Dijk I just don't think you understand He's Ronald Puel's man He's better than Jaap Stam...." Ok, they got his first name wrong
You think there is much credence to these? It seems his position could well be 'up for review' (under threat).
This season has seen the usual top teams rise to the top in contrast with the 2 seasons before. Last season was especially unusual and I feel that we could have been in Leicester's position....the best chance a good side could have to unexpectedly take the title and we had a very good side. This season, every team below 7th are close together...though the bottom 4 are dropping away. Our GD suggests that we haven't been as bad defensively as we are imagining....but losing by the odd goal is always frustrating. So we are among the also rans, but we should have been competing for at least 7th....9th looks close, but it isn't really as we are closer to 16th. There are reasons we are not....injuries, sales, Europa...so I would still say we are the best side outside the top 6 (level with Everton...damn their eyes). It's the entertaining side I am not happy with and, nearing the end of the season, we still have little idea who we are. However, I feel rather dirty talking about sacking Puel....disloyal. He's had his problems and I can see no reason not to give him another season....unless there is stuff we know nothing about. This will be all up in the air if the clubs sold.
All managers get reviews....Puel hasn't had as bad a season as some think on paper....depends if there is stuff behind the scenes. However, with a possible sale in the offing, does anyone think the board's heart is in looking for another manager. If an ace manager is sitting in Les's outer office with his rollercase next to him...perhaps, but will they really want to scour the continents and go through that hassle when it may be all change in a few months.
