Viking Saint

Southampton have appointed former Nice boss Claude Puel as their new manager. The 54-year-old Frenchman, who left the Ligue 1 club in May after leading them to fourth in the table, has signed a three-year contract with Saints. He replaces Ronald Koeman, who took over at Everton on 16 June. Southampton considered ex-Roma boss Rudi Garcia, while a move for former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini was not pursued after initial talks. Eric Black, Aston Villa's caretaker manager last season following Remi Garde's sacking, joins Puel as assistant manager with former Boulogne coach Pascal Plancque as assistant first-team coach. Who is Claude Puel? Puel was given his first job in management with Monaco in 1999. He had been a player there for 17 years, of which seven were under Arsene Wenger before he joined Arsenal. Puel led Monaco to the Ligue 1 title in 2000 before taking over at Lille in 2002. Appointed Lyon boss in 2008, he led them to the Champions League semi-finals in 2010. What is his management style? Erik Bielderman, the chief football writer for French newspaper L'Equipe, has followed Puel's career. He told BBC Radio Solent that Puel is a "quiet guy" with the media and will "not give great headlines", but "speaks his mind" in the dressing room. Bielderman described Puel the player as the "Roy Keane" of Monaco's "very offensive, very stylish" side in the 1980s. He added: "He loves entertaining football but he is also realistic. "His team will never be unbalanced but they will play to win games. They are not the kind of team, like we have a lot of in France, just to play for a draw." Will it work at Southampton? Bielderman said it is a "clever appointment" by Southampton rather than a "glamorous move". Garde, the last manager to move to the Premier League from France with an impressive coaching reputation, left Aston Villa in March after only 147 days in charge. But Bielderman said of Puel: "This guy is suitable. Southampton is the perfect connection with Claude because he is an academy coach. He loves the academy player." How long will he stay? Southampton, promoted to the Premier League in 2012, have since seen highly rated managers Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman leave for Tottenham and Everton respectively. They have sold a host of players in recent years, while midfielder Victor Wanyama has joined Tottenham for £11m and striker Sadio Mane moved to Liverpool for £34m since the end of last season. Winger Nathan Redmond, a £10m capture from Norwich, is Southampton's only summer signing. Bielderman said: "Sometimes you are a bit fed up when you build a team, make the young players progress and suddenly people come and buy the players and you have to rebuild again. "The market in England offers so many opportunities to buy and to sell that to build on a long-term basis becomes almost the impossible dream. "In a club like Southampton, you maybe expect to have a couple of years with some consistency. "Claude Puel is the kind of guy to have three, four seasons, but when he feels uncomfortable, which was the case at Nice and also at Lyon, he is not the guy who will fight to stay. He will say, 'This is not for me any more - bye bye'."

That's another 5 million on his price tag.....

Would imagine a 'loyalty' bonus goes out the window if you f**k off to another club

Jaap Stam has just been announced as new Reading boss....just saying.....

It worries the life out of me that some of these are even mentioned in the same breath as our club....

Some people on here seem rather naive.....the only loyalty in football is amongst the fans....for everybody else involved, it's business - nothing less.

Or that the 'if' in the text is in a quotation mark, as is the smiley.....

Would hope we are setting our sights a bit higher tbh....

Source???

I played Rugby 10s there a few years back...great place to go out and locals were all friendly and place was very relaxed, but as you say, it wasn't the cheapest weekend!!

one day, you could be sitting here Brenda......

I like the home kit...can you do the away kit with yellow??

It's odd how many people don't appreciate that different opposition calls for different styles of attack - Pelle works well again certain defences...against others, the pace and movement of Long is more effective....horses for courses

This......he has without a shadow of a doubt been good for us

Great to be a Saint....a Plymouth win tonight would cap it all off!!! Chances of keeping Big Vic and Mane now??

Woot and Stoke are 2-1 up!!!!

Who mentioned lottery numbers?!

Get in!!!

Tommy Forecast

Hopefully not.....

Cos he'll want to go to a club that will pay him 2-3 times what we are and will offer us stupid money for his services, which we'll take as per previous deals and re-invest in players off most clubs' radars and make a tidy profit......

anyone got any idea of timings etc?

How many more millions will we get for Sadio now??

Class....

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/manchester-united-to-offer-depay-in-exchange-deal/ar-BBskaIx?li=BBoPWjP Thoughts??