Claude Puel has been given a rocky time from some Saints fans on social media, now with a win under his belt he needs to be cut some slack and given a little time and patience by some of our supporters.

It is understandable why some Saints fans are upset about Claude Puel's appointment as Saints manager, but if the surace is scratched then possibly for many it is more about the perceived betrayal by Ronald Koeman than any real knowledge of who Puel is or what he can do.

In Koeman it looked like Saints finally had a manager who would offer stability and was a household name, to then see him tear up his own rule book on morals was not only hurtful, but for many scarred them mentally for the experience.

That mean't that it did not matter who took over from Koeman, the fact was he could never be the Dutchman, it was akin to your girlfriend leaving you, she is run off with another but that cannot make you stop loving her immediately, initially no one will be able to replace her, but time is a healer and most find someone better.

That is the situation with Claude Puel, we cannot expect to love him overnight, but we do have to give him the chance to show that he can replace Koeman.

It doesn't help that he is not the personality that Koeman is, but we don't pick managers on their ability to be the life and soul of the party, we appoint them to build a squad and win football matches, it doesn't help that he isn't the houshold name Koeman was, but then again the best managers in Europe in recent times have not been legends before there managerial career, think Wenger, Guardiola, Mourinho & Klopp to name just a few, so that should not be a factor.

It doesn't help that he wants to change the playing style, but football has always evolved and playing styles are no different.

LIterally everything he has done has been a call for some of our fanbase to suggest that he is incompetent, even the fact that he didn't shake hands with players when being substituted was given to me as proof he was not good enough.

The truth is Puel has not had the best of periods to take over at Saints, the core of his squad was not available to him to literally the week before the Premier League season, he had little time to get to know his squad and their capabilities not them to get to know him, it was not the best preparation.

But we have not played badly in any of our games so far, that fact has escaped most of the Puel detractors, yes we haven't had the results we would have liked, but the only teams we have been beaten by are trips to Man United and Arsenal and not many will win there, but we could have got more than we did.

We were only a bit of tinkering, a bit more practise and a bit more luck from a result in all of our games and against Sparta Prague we got all three.

So Claude Puel has got his first win and in doing so has perhaps won his first battle in winning the fans over and let us not forget, his three predecessors made just as bad if not worse starts to their tenure in the managers chair and all were held up as not being as good as the man who had gone, they won the fans over so there is no reason why Claude Puel should not.

Indeed one criticism is that his communication skills are not good, people have ridiculed his press conferences and the way he conducts himself, well would say at least I know what he sounds like, unlike Mauricio Pochettino who never uttered one word of English in public about Southampton Football Club.

It is all about perception, now our perception is that last season was all smiles because we finished it on a high, we have forgotten the criticism that was levelled at Koeman, not only at the start of the season but in the middle when we barely picked up a point in 7 games, the same people who levelled it back then, are now championing Koeman as a genius whilst condemning Puel.

So lets give Claude Puel the chance to show that he can be a long term manager of this club, we do not pay him to be liked or entertaining or pat players on the head, we are paying him to manage the football club and preferably quietly and with little fuss I for one would prefer him to do it that way.

Perhaps he will fail, but we have to give him the time to show that he either has it or hasn't got what it takes, how long that time is is open for debate, but I will say one thing, four games is not a fair, reasonable and long enough period to make that decision.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 14:56 - Sep 16 I'm not sure if anybody has mentioned this in other posts but one of the positives about last evenings performance was the obvious team spirit, I can't recall seeing so many players encouraging each other and making light of colleagues errors. Even after the penalty spat Tadic ran over to Austin all smiles to congratulate him, long may it continue.
5

law101 added 15:44 - Sep 16 I think obviously wins will help the fans perception of Puel. As Nick rightly points out his personality does not match that of MP or RK or even NA. I have to say I very rarely listen to any of the pre match/ after match summaries anymore as Puel has a very monotonous style, not helped by his pigeon English and love of repeating how 'important' everything is in a rather monotone voice. I am 100% behind him thus far and as I say, as soon as we start winning no doubt Puel's style will be seen as calculated and considered, which I hope will be just as endearing as his predecessors.

1

law101 added 15:57 - Sep 16 Actually I take that back, I hated MP's press conferences as well.However he is proof that success brings support.
0

landerwal added 16:10 - Sep 16 No press conference, post match interview or post match analysis have ever been responsible for winning a game, scoring a goal or saving a penalty in a match. They are purely there for for the media's pleasure. Who cares if our manager is boring or does not have the charisma of Marinio, it's only point's total at the end of the season that count and there another 102 up for grabs

1

HungrySaint added 16:36 - Sep 16 So far the only issue we seem to have suffered is not sticking the ball in the net. Puel has the team playing well and the possession we have had has been very impressive but we haven't seen the end result. Pelle went through a bit of a drought, Mane too but it seems our strikers have broken their ducks. Personally I think the team is playing better football than last season (maybe just continued improvement from RK) but there seems to be a cohesion and more confidence on the ball. Let's see what the rest of the season holds.

-1

BoondockSaint added 17:28 - Sep 16 You can get over your ex really quick if you go up market and get a newer, fitter one! That's the fans frustration: all the hot ones on the market told us to get lost and we can't understand why-What's wrong with us? Even Mike Ashley does better than us!! It's always about money, eh? Did you notice the announcer at the Arsenal game commenting "..Koeman left, but Les Reed always has a list of three or more managers ready in case the current one leaves." That sounds like Saints are always expecting managers to use us as a stepping stone.

3

SanMarco added 17:45 - Sep 16 I don't care about the personality aspects or the media nonsense. I wanted us to appoint Pellegrini and was disappointed at this bloke's relatively low profile but then we'd never heard of Pochettino (and maybe wish that was still the case) and there were enough who doubted Koeman. Of course we need to give Puel time and the great majority of us are doing just that. On the Koeman departure - did the club ever deny that thing about them refusing to let him see out his last year unless he signed an extension?

2

helpineedsomebody added 08:45 - Sep 17 do you want money in the bank or on the field
1

vanmans added 20:13 - Sep 17 What good is money in the Bank if you get Relegated. So on the field every time.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Bury Polls