Claude Puel has had a difficult first season at St Mary's, not all of it being of his own making, but the next three games will go a long way in pointing to whether he has a long term future as Saints manager.

I have always said that Claude Puel should be judged at the end of the season and not half way through it or after a run of poor games, after all if we had judged either Mauricio Pochettino or Ronald Koeman on a short poor period then both could easily have been sacked if we judged them on the same standards that some want to judge Puel.

Of course Claude Puel has made mistakes, at times his employment of the rotation system has been too extreme, but looking back was that as big a problem as some would have you believe, yes it cost us our Europa League progression when he played a much changed team in Prague, something that gambled when we should have gone for certainty, but this season has had much more issues and not all Puel's fault.

The issue with Jose Fonte was not of Puel's making, Fonte was looking to leave before he had even met Puel and truth is we did not land the striker that Puel needed for his system back in August, if we had then Puel's reputation with some Saints fans could be much higher.

He also has had a lot of bad luck with injuries, at times we have had half a dozen players out, some of the key, not all of the changes made by Puel were uneccessary.

But since Xmas his stock has changed, we have got more consistency and we achieved our first major final in 14 years and from a statistical point of view sitting 10th in the League having played in that final is as good a season as any of his predecessors in the entire history of the club have managed, indeed ironically perhaps the two most successful managers at Saints judging on finals and League positions are Lawrie McMenemy and Gordon Strachan, both had far worse starts to their career at the club than Puel and got more stick from the fans because of it.

So if we are to judge the Frenchman at the end of the season then the next three games will go a long way to helping form that judgement.

In my opinion if he achieves a top ten finish then after adding the Wembley final that will be a decent first season and indeed a decent season for any manager of this football club, especially when you consider it would be the first time we have managed a top ten finish four times in a row and how few finals we have played in.

Neutral observers would certainly see it as successful and given our history it would be strange if our own supporters did not see it as not only consolidating the last three years but building on them, four years ago we were seen as relegation candidates, now we are seen as a top ten challenger and contender for honours.

But first Puel hasto finish the job this season and the next three fixtures will go a long way as to just how well we end up.

We have two very winnable home games, win them both and that will see us nudging the 40 point mark on 39, but more importantly will put ground between us and the chasing clubs including Saturday's visitors Bournemouth and we will have games in hand.

But it will set us up for arguably the most important fixture in the remainder of the season and that is the trip to West Brom, the Baggies currently sit in 8th and barring a meltdown by Everton, 8th is our target, we are 10 points behind West Brom but with two games in hand, we need to make up that ground and even if we win the two home games we still need to go to the Hawthorns and win to stand a real chance of overhauling them.

So these three games will tell us by the end if we are going to chase down West Brom or if we are going to have to battle it out for 10th place and indeed whether we are favourites or not to take one of those spots.

Lose two out of three and we will be falling behind in our quest.

So It is a big week coming up for Puel, he has to get the team selection right for these games and he has to win them, it has been a difficult first season for him, that cannot be denied and as i say not all of his own making, however having given him some leeway, he now has to show that he can take the team forward.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 12:28 - Mar 27 I thought the first half an hour at Spuds had a distinct 'end of season' feel about it. We are not going down and we are not qualifying for Europe so hopes of a surge up the table would seem rather optimistic with nothing to play for - unless we get some 'shop window' playing like we got from Mane at the end of last season. The games that defined Puel for us have already happened - good and bad. Yes - we would all prefer 8th to 14th but realistically the season will be over once we get to 40 points. Usually we could then say 'we are safe so let's think ahead to next season' but the summer sales tend to make that a difficult business. I am not a fan of Puel but he deserves another season (if he wants one) and let's hope he doesn't lose all of his best players before September 1st.

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hmmm added 13:07 - Mar 27 Nick, you do your X games to decide a season shtick every few weeks, I assume as clickbait. Just seems a bit more ridiculous than usual this time with Gabbiadini apparently injured and, as SanMarco says, end of season mid-table obscurity beckoning
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saintmark1976 added 13:52 - Mar 27 Fully agree with you SanMarco.I thought Spurs knew they could not win the title and we appear to safe from relegation unless something goes horribly wrong. What matters now is the ownership question and whether we sell our best players in the summer. Despite Nick's procrastinating that we must sell (and he may be correct) to compete, I seriously wonder if a mass sell off will wash this time around. Frankly most fans are not interested in the club's business model. All they see is an invitation to part with £500/600 for a season ticket and our current quality players leaving for the exit door at the same time.

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SaintBrock added 14:54 - Mar 27 I doubt we will get threatened with relegation yet Bournemouth who share the same number of points as us are regarded by pundits as being "not clear of danger yet". This needs some headache inducing thinking to rationalise. Nick, the well worn cliche you have used as a header is no more apposite now than it was in December when we were on that long losing streak in fact that period was probably more defining in terms of Puel's future or legacy or whatever you want to call it. What we can all agree on is that Saints have always been Saints and seemingly always will be! The next three games should yield 9 points but somehow you sense "in your water" that it ain't going to happen and we end up with only four. That has been the story of our season and I can see us continuing to stutter all the way to the finishing line in much the same fashion.

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Jesus_02 added 15:08 - Mar 27 I don't like being too negative about you Nick, I do appreciate the effort that you go to but the manner that you support saints is so dower and uninspiring at times it has to be called out. "Neutral observers would certainly see it as successful and given our history it would be strange if our own supporters did not see it as ....blah...blah" I don't really care what neutral observers think and the though of us greeting anything other than "perennial stragglers" as some sort of bewildering success actual makes me feel a little bit angry . Call me over passionate or unrealistic if you will but isn't football about aspirations and dreams? We may not have been in the past but we SHOULD be a big club. Look at our geography and our potential not the fact that we failed to invest adequately in the past

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GeordieSaint added 15:33 - Mar 27 I think we can only really judge him after next season to be fair. This year has had glorious moments with lots of mediocrity chucked in the middle. Another season with a couple more additions and no European football knackering everybody and we will see what he is made of. I also think some players have been bought or given opportunities this season with next year in mind, players like Boufal, Simms and others will hopefully flourish and if we keep Virgil for one more year we d have a great team.

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surreysaint added 16:47 - Mar 27 I think this season has been very good. Europa League was a disappointment but a Cup Final more than makes up for that. As far as the league goes, the point of a rotation policy is to make sure we're in better shape than our rivals at precisely this stage of the season. To that extent, Nick's dead right. These are 3 winnable games. Win them and Puel can say that his policy has paid off at the business end of the season, lose them and everyone will - quite rightly - be asking what the point was.

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aceofthebase added 17:29 - Mar 27 Good rotation has already paid off with players ready to step in when required and given the injury list some pretty good teams put out.
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dixiefrog added 18:42 - Mar 27 I can't believe a supporter of Southampton can be suggesting that our Managers season hinges on just three games. For me CP has been very good, has advanced the club, got us to a major final and is consolidating our position in the toughest league in the world. All this on the back of being new to EPL football, has his challengers with the language and losing a number of key players before his squad had even kicked a ball. The fans don't need to be told how important the next three games are, believe it or not we are intelligent enough to work out the maths for ourselves, we don't need to be spoon fed information and we don't need to be told the bleedin obvious. What we do need is recognition that the Boss is doing a good job and is without doubt, looking to ALL of the remaining games to gain maximum points.

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BoondockSaint added 19:34 - Mar 27 Too soon for season round-ups, but it's feeling like it. Last year at this time it felt like we were going somewhere. Puel is not going to get sacked. He is just there to keep us mid-table. In his defence, Les sold the team out from under him and waited until the season was half over before even attempting to do something. The "rotation" policy I think is Puel just kept putting players in hoping they would do something, didn't happen, so he went back to the first bunch, and so on...... I strongly disagree with the "have a good cup run" or "went to a final" mindset: It means we LOST. Yes, it brought in some cash (not that we will spend it), but this is professional sports-you either win or lose. Participation trophies are to encourage little kids not for professionals or their fans to pretend they achieved something. As a famous coach once said: "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

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