Thursday 18 August 2016 21:35, UK
Claude Puel might not have been an appointment to set pulses racing on the south coast but there's reason to think he is the ideal man for Southampton, writes Adam Bate.
Thierry Henry remembers Claude Puel well. He was the senior man at Monaco when the forward was breaking through, and while the Southampton manager is new to the Premier League, he has already played a small part in some of its greatest goals.
If you want to work and you're willing to listen, you're going to improve with Claude Puel.
"I played with him and had him as a fitness coach as well," Henry told Sky Sports. "He helped me work on bending the ball and stayed with me after training to develop my finishing. If you want to work and you're willing to listen, you're going to improve with Claude Puel."
The list of people that Puel can convince to listen to him is perhaps the really impressive part of his CV. Football had almost given up on Hatem Ben Arfa. Puel built a team around him at Nice, resulting in a France recall and a place on the Ligue 1 player of the year shortlist.
"Everyone wanted to watch Nice last year," said Henry. "He managed to get the best out of Ben Arfa and I'm not surprised. He'd go through walls as a player and he'll demand that of his players. He'll want a team that plays with discipline and organisation but also freedom."
It's a picture of a pragmatist with a twist. Another former Monaco team-mate, Glenn Hoddle, rates Puel as one of the hardest workers he's known. L'Equipe's chief football writer Erik Bielderman likens him to Roy Keane. But there's a flexibility to Puel too.
Saints midfielder Harrison Reed was among those impressed by his early training sessions. "It's a lot of technical stuff - short, sharp stuff," he said. But others in the past have seen things rather differently. Kevin Mirallas once complained of Puel's "defensive tactics" at Lille.
He will not necessarily be wedded to one formation, and while he spent seven years under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger in the principality, he's no idealist either. Southampton will be counting on that adaptability as he coaches outside of the French game for the first time.
Puel does not boast the perfect CV. While Henry is right to point out that he did "extremely well" at Monaco, winning the title, his reputation is still coloured in France by a big-budget failure at Lyon. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between - in his stints at Lille and Nice.
Those will be the jobs to which Southampton will have been drawn. For it was there that Puel showed a real commitment to developing youth, giving professional debuts to future Premier League stars such as Mirallas, Yohan Cabaye, Mathieu Debuchy and Eden Hazard.
With one of the smaller budgets in France, he took the club to their then highest league finish in 50 years and won the country's manager of the year award for a second time. His more recent achievements with Nice echoed those efforts in Lille.
He took Nice to fourth in 2013 - their best league finish since 1976 -and then repeated the feat last season with a very different line-up. He promoted no fewer than 16 players from the academy to the first team and kept getting results in the process.
That's an accomplishment that will be relevant at Southampton, given the regular changes of personnel and the club's focus on youth. "I like to improve the young players," Puel said recently. "It's important for the club and important for me at all the clubs I have managed."
Southampton's appreciation of those qualities mean this is more than a mere gamble. It's a calculation that Puel is the right man for the next phase. They've got this decision right before and that's why club legend Matt Le Tissier is among those backing them this time.
Hopefully Puel can take us on again. I trust the club.
"Mauricio Pochettino wasn't a household name and people perhaps thought it was a bit crazy, but that didn't turn out too bad," Le Tissier told Sky Sports. "Ronald Koeman was also a fantastic success here. Hopefully Puel can take us on again. I trust the club."
And the club trusts Puel. Those who know the 54-year-old well feel that's a sensible decision. "He'll need to understand how the Premier League is, but he's a great guy and a good coach," added Henry. "Most of all, he's a good fit for the task in hand at Southampton."
