What I don't understand is how so many can trust the club when they employ X or Y but if and it is a big if they sack X or Y and it's not agreed with then it's a bad decision. Either the club knows what it's doing or it doesn't. If they do remove Puel it'll be nothing to do with the fans but more likely an agreement between him and the people who make the decisions based on the entire season and things behind the scenes we have no knowledge of and probably never will. If he goes, we get another manager -things will improve, get worse or stay the same, like it's always been.
Beddy: Nobody can deny Puel has had a tough 1st season. He has had to bed in a lot of new players and I blame that on the board. They should not have let those players go, at least until the new manager was able to have an input in their replacements. Also a serious mistake was not getting in a recognised striker at the start of the season. Another mistake by the board or by Puel May have been a mistake by neither....Les could have been trying to sign a striker (rumour was it was Manolo), but it didn't work out. We could have been looking at a shortlist of strikers....if you can't get what you want....do you spend millions on a striker that you don't want....especially as we had 3 strikers at that point. I doubt it was Puel's fault....no manager in the world would ever turn down the offer of a striker. Cannot imagine him telling Les Reed, 5 mins after he arrived in England, don't bother to get me a striker....won't need them as I'm not planning to score many goals.
I think everton have shown they're the best of the rest. It is defintely a top 6 rather than 7. In terms of our results in the league we have defintely regressed this season.
Don't go to Sevilla between June and the end of September. Here in Mallorca summer temperatures range between 28 and 35 on average. Add another 10 to the higher figure and the tremendous humidity. Best to go in the winter to Sevilla. PS: Sevilla who will finish 4th have got nowhere near the level of Barca or Real in their head to head matches thus suggesting there is a huge gap between 2nd and 4th in La Liga. The PL gap is between 7th and 8th. In Pais Vasco (the Basque country) there are two other teams that nobody really talks about, Eibar and Alaves, the latter play Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey. What price a win for Alaves?
Ignoring the Cup, we have performed less well this season in the League. One season means little....a player or two not replaced exactly will change the dynamic of the team.....a new player next season or present players bedding in better....and all could be right with the world. Also depends on other teams....the usual suspects have definitely returned to the norm this season. Let's see over the next few seasons....and I'll panic then.
It is also possible Puel wanted to run the rule of the squad that he inherited, thus gaining the trust and support of the players. IMO it could be argued that the additions of Boufal and Gabby have been prudent and welcome additions.
I guess Fran that is another debate.........They did not replace Pelle.............I don't think there was a fan out there that wasn't screaming we need another striker......I don't go along with (Les Reed didn't have time) although I agree if he was possibly in negotiation with someone at the last minute. No I don't think he should have spent millions on someone just to get a striker. Most boards have got a list of possibles when they are in the market for players. Clearly there were more than one striker out there available to suite Saints needs. As soon as enquiries came in for Pelle the list of possible replacements would have been put in front of him. Contact should have been made about their availability and interest even before they were talking to Pelle's buyers. The fact is he was too slow off the mark. Similar to Charlton's complaints years ago when he was a director there if I recall. As we all know he was dismissed from there for those and other reasons. As you can see I am not the biggest Fan of Les Reed although other than that mentioned he hasn't done too much wrong that I know of here at Saints.
Everton fans might beg to differ. Let's settle for an inbetweener. 15 points is an enormous gap. As things stand they are what, 4 points behind Manchester United, a top level club in the PL? Let's close that to 10 by close of play on Sunday (alternatively it could be 17 between 7th and 8th if there is a sequence of draws involving ourselves, Leicester, Bournemouth and WBA, and Everton win at Arsenal).
Even the best laid plans of mice and men etc. No one is infallible, but sometimes things happen...entirely possible that things fall through at the last minute when trying to buy a player. Several things can fall through at the same time and you can make a wrong decision....happens in our lives. If you are jilted at the altar on your wedding day, it doesn't mean that you will never get another bride/groom right. Failing to sign quality players over a few seasons is a different matter of course.
Deserves another year, will be pretty annoyed if we sack him, in all honesty (unless of course it's him who wants to go, but doesn't sound like it!)
Why do you & a few others (you know who you are) spout the highlighted drivel when posters state their disappointment. Some like me are in support of Puel staying but frustrated (me marginally) in the style of play & wish for better - nothing wrong with that. Surely we all want best & better for the team we love & cherish. You could of & in my humble opinion, finished your above post before the red highlight, of which I totally agree with.
I would be really pissed about all the speculation if I was Claude, especially if there is any truth about his job being under threat. He has done what he was asked to do and, although he didn't get out of the Europa group stage, he was only a whisker away. If he leaves and it isn't mutual, he will always consider that he wasn't given a fair crack of the whip and he (and us) will never know if he could have done better in a second season without the injury problems. This has of course been aggravated by the speculation that we are about to be sold....new owners usually mean new plans.
As much as I think we've had a pretty good season I don't really see how being 'a whisker away' from getting out of our europa group is that good an achievement. Half the teams in the group go through and if we're being honest it was a weak group (as inter could only play their B team). Not trying to slate Puel or anything I just don't think europa should be a positive for him.
Fair comment, and you and I are not so far apart in our views although you have expressed you disappointment quite strongly. If I can be permitted to take a longer view going back over time to seasons when Saints were in the PL prior to 2012/13, SFC were glad to be hanging on in there. It does seem to me that the mentality of the club has gone up a level on the return to the PL. Club and fans no longer expect just mere survival but at least a mid-table final placing. And you are right to expect more entertainment. God, you pay enough for it!! Maybe I am a bit blaze about things and say one or two things tongue in cheek. Anyhow here's to putting Manchester United to the sword on Wednesday and a certain Wayne Rooney quiet as he will want to prove he still has it. For next season I would like Saints to be more assertive in their approach when playing teams from the top seven and aiming to get at least 15 points in these encounters. This would propel the team again towards the 60 points area and another chance of taking part in the EL. If I was the manager 60 points would be my main objective.
To add to your comment, I think the quality of this season's EL tournament has been very poor throughout, and can be summarised in United's performances where they have "limped" through to the final, and can be contrasted with previous years where the teams that have competed, played with a swagger - Sevilla and Atletico to name but two.
By a strange coincidence Liverpool finished in 8th place last season, which was Jurgen Klopp's first in charge. What would the reaction of the Liverpool fans have been if the board had sacked Klopp for underachieving? I suspect some would have been pleased, but the vast majority would surely have been sorry to see the flamboyant German depart, before he began to impose his own style on the squad. Is the unwillingness of many Saints fans to give Claude Puel a similar chance based on his personality? As we have seen, Claude can be just as passionate as Klopp, although he does seem to lack Klopp's somewhat disturbing angry side when things go badly. So is it the tactics and footballing style displayed by Puel's teams? It's true there have been a worrying lack of goals scored overall this season, but I remember the same concerns being raised against Saints under Koeman. The need for rotation imposed by the hectic schedule in the first half of the season, together with having to bring new Academy players into the team, meant that Puel's diamond formation, unfamiliar to most of the squad, had to be replaced by the more orthodox 4-2-3-1 after the Europa exit. Then, of course, there was the lack of an out-and-out striker once Austin was injured, but this has been much discussed already. The comparison with Liverpool, with the injury to Daniel Sturridge, still holds though. Liverpool finally sparked into life under Klopp with the acquisition of Sadio Mané, who Saints haven't really found a replacement for so far. Many people were surprised that Saints didn't appoint a high-profile manager following Koeman's departure, someone who was a household name we could all immediately identify with as football fans. Drill down a bit into Puel's history and you will find someone who won 2 Ligue 1 titles as a player with Monaco, as well as winning the Ligue 1 title with the same club as a manager. He later took Olympique Lyonnaise to the Champions League semifinals, so he has an impressive record as a manager of clubs not in the elite class in European football. One could argue his roll of honour stands alongside that of that of Jurgen Klopp. I apologise for the lengthy post, but I felt these points needed to be made. My conclusion is that Puel deserves another season, with a chance in the summer to buy his own preferred players (black box permitting), and a full preseason to get the squad firing on all cylinders.
Why would so many people, it would seem, know that the club want rid of Puel? Especially someone from the Saints Foundation?! In all the companies I've worked for, sackings have tended to stay private until they are announced.
