You just knew ...

Puel apologists of the world unite, time will prove you right.

I have been in France for a couple of weeks. Got back last night and was on a train from London when I heard two women talking. Oh, it's 3-0, one said, and then reeled off the names of the scorers. I flicked on my phone and sure enough there was the confirmation. And do you know, I didn't feel gutted. I felt that the same as I do when I hear another Brexit consequence story. Saddened, tinged with "told you so". And the parallel goes deeper than that. Because while I think voting Brexit was a huge mistake, as I do the sacking of Claude Puel I want the next steps to be carefully considered. I truly want Saint Theresa and her chums to pull off something remarkable and ensure the future prosperity of Britain. How could I not? My children and grandchildren will grow up here. Similarly, I want the football club I have loved for 60+ years to find a way of sorting out the cock up they made last season when they pressed the panic button.

The other feeling I had last night was to think "Well done, Claude. You showed the bastards." The only question is who are the bastards?!

 

It was a bigger mistake to let vardy and Mahrez follow puel to Leicester. Oh no hang on...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42347378

 

Tears may not have been shed (to quote the article) but the Helen-led campaign to thank the man showed that his departure was far from universally applauded.

 

<Sigh> One just wonders what the bloody point of getting rid was, was it only to keep a couple of high profile players feeling like the most important people in the room?

 

Do we know that was the reason? I suspect we know bugger all. But to quote that article above:

"Journalist Philippe Auclair told BBC Sport Southampton's decision to dispose of Puel after one season was regarded as "ludicrous" in France."

As a dyed in the wool francophile I agree. Certainly friends in France were astonished. So whatever the reason it was a crap one.

 

I know nothing but what I discerne between the lines. He had allies and opponents is widely circulated but who knows, I was asking, not telling.

 

Wrong or right decision will always be a debating point. However if a manager loses the the backing of the players he really doesn't have much chance.

 

As a newly found addict of reading Saintsweb it seems that most over there were in favour of sacking Puel. The more articulate ones say that fans who now disagree with the decision are looking back with revisionism because he is doing well at Leicester and Pellegrino hasn't started like we hoped. They are saying that the decision to sack Puel was the correct one, but the decision to replace him with Pellegrino was the wrong one. Basically just because we are struggling atm does not mean sacking Puel was wrong.

Personally I was of the opinion that he should've bene given the summer and up until about now and see where we are then. If we had done as we have so far then I think I probably would have been saying it was time he left and we were looking for someone else. But that is all ifs buts and maybes. The bottom line for me is that Puel has a squad far more suited to how he likes to play at Leicester than he did here, so is getting better results from that squad.

 

I think quite a few fans were in favour of giving him another season....I had 2 reasons (1) he didn't deserve the sack after the season we had (2) stability....give him a whole preseason to see who he brought in and what he could do.

 

I don’t think the fans role can be underestimated from a financial viewpoint. I read a few testimonies on here from people not looking to renew their season tickets and obviously he had the very vocal and hostile reception at the end of the season.

Poor season ticket sales could have been the tipping point and reason for the delayed sacking.

 

I dunno, the vocal thing and **** atmosphere might've been a factor due to how it would come across to the TV viewers (the only thing the club should care about from a financial viewpoint), but we must average what? 20,000 season ticket holders, maybe. At an average of about £600 each? That is only £12m which over a season is not much to a PL team and not a main reason in sacking a manager who has done OK in my view.

 

People not renewing STs would indicate discontent, but would have a minimal financial effect on Saints as I am willing to bet the ground would still be largely full and a large portion of income comes from Sky anyway. I suspect it was perfectly possible for Puel to stay, but a rift developed between him and the board (or at least the one he dealt with....LR). Puel spoke at the beginning of what was required of him...bring youngsters through, get out of the group stage of the Europa and reach the quarter finals of a cup. May not have achieved the Europa bit, but the final of the League Cup could be considered over achieving. He could quite rightly have felt he'd achieved a lot in his first season. I suspect he wasn't so much sacked as left by mutual agreement....especially if he didn't feel he had the board's full support.

 

I was sat on the fence with puel. Wasn’t calling for him to go but didn’t shed any tears. Retrospectively we were spoiled by MP1 and Koeman. We also had better players.

We can’t look at Leicester success and say it was the wrong decision to sack him. We have to ask the question would he be doing better than MP2 with the resources available? Answer = maybe but last seasons stats would suggest there’s not a lot in it.

Leicester have some real talent in attack, they’re playing well atm. Let’s make up our minds after a full season.

 

Puel did not help himself by finishing a season on a low. Those who are now very vocal about how Puel should be given more time conveniently forget that especially in his last 10 league games or so he had us play such a poor, drab and unwatchable football. It did not look in any way that we're improving, it looked more like a steady decline.

 

No. I keep being told the fans had no influence.

 

Some of us who are very vocal now, were very, very vocal then.

This will not be popular but I think those who keep mentioning the end of the season are a little naive or blinkered maybe (posssibly not best choice of word), because it wasn’t about just that run. We had players wanting to leave (VVD and Bertie) to bigger things, a crowd who had turned on a Puel after 1-2 games and some deflation after being robbed of a Cup Final win at Wembley. I do not believe Puel got full support of the senior management, the fans of two players (maybe three) at that time. Despite it being dull at the end of that season we still were hard to beat. THats a good platform to build on.

Anyway, roll on 6 months and the fans are none the happier. I can see a circle forming; a vicious one.

 

Great post Lambo.

 

Agree completely with what you say.

 

He has gone. Draw a line under it and move on.