I doubt that would happen, but we don't want the pathway closed. Youngsters have to be given some chance to gain experience.
Only a three year deal, so if he is successful it might only be another two seasons before he leaves. I am happy enough. He has succeeded elsewhere. The "glass half-empties" will not be happy but he seems to be a good fit and his name is a dream for puns. What more could you want?
I think Koeman would have used players if they were good enough. Why wouldn't he? However, if Puel can play a part in fixing the academy issues DTLW has hunted at previously then that would be great. He does sound like an exciting manager, but I will be pretty unhappy if we do not bring in a few exciting signings. We made a profit on transfers last year and we seem to want to make a profit this year too. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it means our talent spotting has to be spot on. We made £87m from TV and the league last year, so we should be able to spend a little...
You overreact to anything negative. You want players benched after one bad game and managers sacked if we lose twice in a row. And you're wrong like 99% of the time. It's kind of hard to take you seriously when everyone on the boards knows exactly how you'll react. Your track record on things of this nature is.... not good. Just sayin'. Maybe when people say you are knee-jerk reacting, or that you should calm down and think about things or give something a chance you should give it a go. For your own mental health.
Interesting that Eric Black is his assistant - he played in France for several years after leaving Aberdeen - I assume he knows Puel well already from his French connection. Black has a good reputation as a coach (and he famously scored for Aberdeen in ECWCF against Real Madrid !)
My take on Claude being on unknown quantity is Arsenal took on a French manager that everyone said WHO? Arsene someone. How did he get on?
It's not just on here it's everywhere. But I was a miserable young git many years ago. It's all down to practise.
Hi Tom, All I'll add on last night, is that maybe it started because you never heed any advise offered up, as plenty has been in the past. Whenever something happens at Saints that is slightly out of line with your wishes, there is usually an eruption of foul language and an angry tirade against the club, player, manager or whoever it is. It always happens. You always erupt in to Mr Angry. Maybe if you could find away to maybe wait before posting and post a little less angrily, then maybe people wouldn't react and patronise the way we did. It's just a thought. Look in as well as out.
I don't mind using academy players to back-fill the squad, even if they might not be up to scratch, because we'll have an awfully large number of games this season; we won't have our best playing in every spot for every game. Choosing not to improve some positions in the hopes that maybe the academy kids will fill them is a different matter, though. A rotation of average, average and "perhaps a kid will step up" is not going to get us far. CB is my particular concern there. We have some youth that might have a shot at minutes this season, but aren't necessarily expected to do great things. We have a decent backup in Yoshida, and Gardos who was an okay backup but is now something of an unknown coming back from injury. Fonte played an extraordinary number of games last year, has had no offseason, and isn't young anymore. Consequently, another starting-quality CB should probably be high on the list. So, I don't have a problem with clearing out some of the lesser lights in the rotation to make room for kids to get the modest minutes they had previous. But I'm not enthused about keeping the more average elements of the squad, adding in fringy kids, and using that depth as a reason not to buy top-end quality.
Yep. Can't say I disagree with any of that. Going to be a very interesting season for Gardos I think.
Welcome Claude! I don't know a lot about you, but you've been selected through one of the most detailed recruitment committees out there. I am very excited at what our next chapter holds for us... Come on Saints!!!
I don't think Puel is expected to PLAY academy players. He is expected to DEVELOP academy players. Which is different. Pochettino always tried to get the younger players 5-10 minutes at the end of a game if he could. He wasn't relying on those players for contributions. And in fact, I think he knew some of them weren't up to snuff, but he gave them a chance because it was good example to set.
More than anything, he regularly had youngsters in training sessions, something we didn't see much of under the previous boss.
Thank goodness that is over and done with... well... for a couple seasons hopefully. Can someone now wind-up the bakelite-box-thingy and splash some cash please!?
Welcome Puel. You are the chosen one. We kneel to your football wisdom. I pledge my allegiance. The King of the South Yes I've been watching THAT show too!
