LEICESTER CITY APPOINT
CLAUDE PUEL
Leicester
City have appointed the former Southampton coach Claude Puel as their manager
following last week’s dismissal of Craig Shakespeare. He has signed a contract
until June
Leicester
interviewed several candidates for the position that has been held on a
temporary basis for the past two matches by Michael Appleton, who will revert
to his assistant’s role. Puel will be unveiled on Friday and will take charge
of Sunday’s home match against Everton.
Puel
was let go by Southampton in June despite leading the
club to an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League and the final of the
Capital One Cup. Southampton flopped in the Europa League and decent domestic
results were deemed not good enough to compensate for a style of play that many
supporters decried as too defensive. Several players disliked his rotation
policy. Puel told French media he was let go “for a little bit more than
sporting reasons”.
Puel, who has since been without a club, impressed Leicester
during more than one set of talks. “Upon meeting Claude, his attention to
detail, knowledge of our squad, understanding of our potential and his vision
to help us realise it were extremely impressive,” Srivaddhanaprabha said. “He
quickly emerged as the outstanding candidate.”
The
56-year-old has a French title among his managerial achievements, having won
Ligue 1 in 2000 with Monaco, the club at which he had spent his entire playing
career. He is perhaps known more as a builder of medium-sized clubs and a
cultivator of young talents thanks to his six-year spell in charge of Lille,
who regularly qualified for Europe by finishing above clubs with more
resources. He was voted the manager of the year in France in 2005 for leading
Lille to a second-place finish in Ligue 1 behind Lyon.
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