Claude Puel Deserves A Warm Reception ! Tuesday, 12th Dec 2017 09:59 Some would say that Claude Puel's sacking had as much to do with the Saints suporters failure to take to him than any other single factor, however we do owe him a debt of gratitude and should give him a warm welcome. Sometimes supporters just don't take to a player or manager and that seemed to be the case when Claude Puel arrived at St Mary's in the summer of 2016, although it can't be argued that his initial manner and demeanor was not as polished as his predecessor Ronald Koeman, this should not have led to some supporters seemingly against him right from the off. Although his start was not great it was no worse than any of his predecessors and initially we were scoring goals, his first six games yielded 7 goals and 8 points, a respectable total especially given that two of those games were at Manchester United and Arsenal. But already by then a section of the crowd had took against him and and their voice grew louder as the season went on. It cannot be denied that some of Puel's failings were of his own making, the constant rotation, the weak teams put out in the Europa League that saw us finish third in a group we really should have won and like Mauricio Pellegrino in the early part of this season he seemed determined to play in a style that didn't suit the players he had. But for all of his failings, little leeway was ever given to him for the situation he came into at Southampton, firstly several key players had gone, Pelle, Wanyama, Mane were always going to be hard to replace and then there was the Jose Fonte situation. But if he thought that what he inherited was bad enough then his luck with injuries was even worse, Charlie Austin injured in December and effectively his season over followed a month later by Virgil Van Dijk. Puel would also point to the fact that the club did not replace Jose Fonte in the January transfer window and with the injury to Van Dijk he had to play with his 3rd and 4th choice central defenders and this was probably the biggest factor leading to his downfall. When Van Dijk was injured arguably Puel had finally got control of the dressing room following the departure of Fonte and had come to terms with the job, after a torrid Xmas we got to a major cup final and we were scoring goals, 3-0 against Leicester and then a run spanning February where in three league games we won two scoring 9 goals in the process and of course two at Wembley. But the ast of that spell seemed to set the dye for Puel, Watford almost recovering a 4-1 deficit seemed to make him think, he had shown that he could attack, but he knew his team was just getting caught on the counter because he lacked pace in the back four, from then on his priority was keeping men behind the ball and not committing them forward. In fairness to Puel he had no choice, he had to plug a weak defence and then hope to nick the odd goal, but the fans turned against him. Neutral observers cannot believe we sacked Puel, they point to an 8th place finish and that game at Wembley and say that most clubs would be delighted by that season, OK I take the point that on paper it looks a lot better than watching it was, but they had a real point, especially when you take into account all the factors beyond the Frenchman's control. If a large part of the supporter base had done so, then he would have been given another season, hopefully a chance to show he had learn't his lessons and with a years experience in the Premier League he could start to impose himself, but a section of the support where not willing to cut him some slack, they glorifiedin telling the World that season tickets would not be renewed whilst he was manager, it wasn't an orchestrated hate campaign, but it felt like it. Ultimately the club seemed to be unsure what to do, they took the rational view initially and looked at what he had achieved, but it seemed that what did for him was alarge part of the season ticket holder base not renewing and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. So Claude Puel returns to St Mary's on Wednesday evening to an unsure reception, but it truly should not be, he should be warmly applauded for what he achieved last season at St Mary's. Whilst the loudest on social media liked to tell you that 2016/17 was the worst ever in Saints history, the actual fact was that it was far from that both in terms of what was achieved on the pitch and even the style of play. Those who moan about the style of play being the worst ever should have watched us in 91- 94 with Ian Branfoot in charge as well as a number of Championship seasons a decade ago. In terms of achievments 8th and a major cup final could be said to be perhaps our fourth best ever season since we joined the football league, 1976 has to be even though we were in Division 2 when we won the FA Cup, 1984 is surely our second best given we finished runners up and an FA Cup semi final, 2003 possibly our 3rd with 8th and an FA Cup final trumping last seasons 8th and a League Cup Final, a season identical to 78/79 when we achieved exactly that. So on paper and after all that is what truly counts, only Lawrie McMenemy and Gordon Strachan have had better seasons in terms of what has actually been achieved by the manager. Of course this is all subjective, but the fact remains that Claude Puel was far from the worst manager this club has ever had, although as i have maintained throughout this article things last year were never black and white. So Claude Puel deserves a warm round of applause from the Saints supporters on Wednesday night, some might not like him, but he did us no wrong, he took over at a difficult time and he kept a steady ship, he managed a top 8th finish (this in itself setting a club record of consecutive top 10 finishes) he took us to a cup final and when he left us we were in exactly the same position as when he arrived, as I said he did us no wrong. Sometimes managers are just not good fits at football clubs, I think that was the case with Claude Puel, but that doesn't make him a bad manager or bad person, he was just the wrong man, in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is amazing he achieved what he did given the issues of last season including injury. I for one will take the chance to applaud him at kick off time, something we never did last season, since his departure he has remained dignified and has said nothing detrimental about either Southampton Football Club or it's supporters, when to be blunt he has good reason to. I am sure there are those that will not find it in them to see anything positive about the man, then I would urge them to say nothing, we need to win a game of football, don't by booing him give his new team motivation to gain revenge for their now manager. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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