French Journalist Manu Lonjon has tweeted some very interesting news for Saints supporters about Claude Puel.
Tweeting earlier this evening Lonjon said
"Puel est en négociations pour être licencié... tu le vois dire " oui, Sainté, ca m'intéresse" ? . J'attends de voir. "
For those of you who do not speak French the rough translation is
"Puel is in negotiations to be fired... you see him say "Yes, Saints, it interests me"? I expect to see."
This comes just after it has been reported that Puel has turned down Saint-Etienne for a second time leaving Saints fans puzzled as to whether the club intend to see what develops before taking the step to sack him.
It seems that there is no way back for Puel now at St Mary's, the fact that the club have told the media they are still considering his position was hardly a vote of confidence in him and seemed merely stalling for time whilst Saints lined up their replacement.
Now it seems that perhaps that replacement has been found and tied up and that the end is near for Puel.
There are those that will point to 8th in the League and a Wembley final as testimony that the Frenchman did not do a bad job at the club, but they would not have seen the majority of the games since that defeat at Wembley.
This as the period that perhaps sealed his fate at the club and amongst the fans, the last months of the season saw little evidence of leadership, selection nous or tactics from the manager as Saints limped into 8th and the reality was they could have and should have pushed Everton a lot closer for 7th.
The next few days should be very interesting news wise from St Mary's