ne pas inspirer - The tale of Claude

In my life time there has been a lot Leicester managers, David Pleat was the first I can remember. He was fired in January 1991, managers come and go it's the life of a football club. Very few clubs in the world has a manager that lasts as long some like Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger. In October 2017, Leicester City decided that Craig Shakespeare wasn't doing a good enough and fired him. Shakespeare had effectively recovered the team from Ranieri's awful second season, continued the run in the champions league getting to the quarter finals and keeping City safe. The season after winning the league was a let down and Ranieri's attempted switch in tactics allied to poor recruitment had consigned Leicester to suffer. Shakespeare wasn't perfect, his love of Andy King was baffling but Shakespeare had been a good servant to the club and was owed the chance after keeping City up. City looked and found their man in the form of Claude Puel. Puel had been rather successful at Southampton but why had they fired him? Must be ran by idiots, I mean they sell their best players every season so getting rid of a manager that has finished 8th and reached the league cup final they must be stupid right? Well, no. Puel started well in his first game against Everton. City played 45 minutes of beautiful football. Puel started with a 4-2-3-1;

Schmeichel 

Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Fuchs

Iborra, Ndidi

Gray, Mahrez, Chilwell

Vardy 

Leicester look balanced, had width and looked they were encouraged to play with tempo whilst keeping the ball on the pitch. For 45 minutes we looked immense, fuck me I thought we could make europe easily at this rate. In the second half Puel throttled back and allowed Everton back in the game good performances followed, little things of concern would creep in. Mainly his subs but despite the odd loss we looked like European football was on. Mahrez, who had been sulking for a season suddenly woke up. I text Sibbo, I liked Puel, he did too. Had we found a good manager finally? Then came a home game with Crystal Palace, was a 12 O'clock kick off which meant I had to get up at 7 in Indiana. It was a dreadful performance. Puel dropped our best midfielder (Iborra) for Matty James. Puel didn't have a pre season and so the reasoned excuse given for it was he was trying to see what players could do for him. James, looked out of place. Palace destroyed City, it was something City never quite recovered from. For the rest of the season City only won 5 games. One of those was against a ten men Arsenal and another against a awful West Brom team. Puel also had to deal with the Mahrez issues, Manchester City had tried to buy him City refused. Mahrez's reaction was to act like a spoilt child and essentially went on strike. Puel coaxed him back out of his sulk, for the game against Manchester City. Puel was strictly a 4 at the back man during his time at Leicester but for some reason decided that today against Man City he would start with 3 at the back. Man City scored first and Vardy equalized for Leicester. At half time, unimpressed with the 3-5-2, Puel switched back to his most usual 4 at the back. Sadly that day, despite Mahrez's return. Kasper Schmeichel had one of his worst games for Leicester City and it allowed Sergio Aguero to tare Leicester to shreds. The game finished 5-1, the second half being largely a non event in terms of competition. The season continued with a largely flat feeling, most where not impressed with his style as a coach and how his team played. Then came Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, to me, Palace are a club similar to Leicester in stature in the English game, Leicester's title win may have gained them kudos but essentially we've been a Midlands version of Palace for many seasons. We went into Palace desperate for a result. No wins in the last 4, it was time for a win or even an away point. What happened was likely the worst result we could have imagined a 5-0 drubbing and Marc Albrighton sent off. Palace with Zaha, Loftus-Cheek and Townsend tore City to shreds, Ben Hamer (who isn't very good) spent most of the game picking the ball out of his net. Puel had reached breaking point for a lot of fans. Most wanted him gone, a home loss to West Ham saw a lot of fans not even stay behind to wait for the lap of honour from the team. I remember that game cause I was in England driving home to my Mum's in Leicester. The voices of Matt Elliott and Ian Stringer weren't happy at another turgid display. The name Peter Taylor was increasingly being used in connection with Puel, at this point he was losing a majority of fans. On the wednesday, my wife and I went to the King Power Stadium to watch Leicester play Arsenal, my boy hood team vs my hometown team. Beforehand we met up with Danny Lint, a childhood friend who had been going to Leicester games for years, we met in the donkey and a friend of his turned up. His friend was someone I wouldn't agree with alot of his opinions, but as we discussed each others views of the game. He raised a point that I thought had a lot merit. Puel never had a preseason with these players and was essential thrown into the deep end. With a group he didn't know much about, it would be better to judge him after the next full season (2018/2019). Expecting a slaughter we went nonetheless. I was at home I couldn't not go to a Leicester game could I? Especially since I had spent $250 on tickets. Playing more of a 4-4-2, Leicester scored first with Iheanacho goal, Arsenal quickly had a man sent off. But Arsenal still played like they had 11 men. Arsenal equalized with a Aubameyang goal, but a Jamie Vardy penalty and late Mahrez goal sealed the victory. Leicester had ended a dire run. The last game of the season was at Wembley but 5-4 loss to Spurs ended the season on a bit of a damp squid. Well really a damper squid, to the already damp squid. 

Puel though had his preason, Mahrez finally was sold to Manchester City for £60 million pounds, Ahmed Musa was sold ending one of the more disappointing signings of City's recent history. In coming players involved not one but three centre halves, Johnny Evans, Filip Benkovic, and Calgar Soyuncu. A fullback Riccardo Pereira that suited Puels need for his full backs to push on. James Maddison was brought in to be a replacement of sorts for Mahrez. Staring at Aberdeen on loan and for Norwich City, Leicester had decided he was there man despite his awful beard. Danny Ward was brought in as extra cover for Kasper Schmeichel. And lastly of the high profile signings Rachid Ghezzal was brought in from Monaco much to the Monaco fans amusement. Ghezzal was hardly a fan favorite at Monaco and many fans found it highly amusing Leicester had spent money on him. He was very much like Mahrez, a left footed Algerian right winger. Until we saw him play though, it was very much in the air as to what he could do. Puel had his preseason players like Vardy and Maguire had been given extra time off due to them being in the England side that reached the Semi finals of the world cup in Russia. The season started at Manchester United, 2-1 loss despite Leicester playing reasonably well. Maddison had looked the part against Mourinho's United. But at around the hour mark was withdrawn for Ghezzal. Ghezzal looked technically good but I was left worried by what else he offered other than having a nice first touch. In the second game of the season Leicester played newly promoted Wolves at home. Wolves honestly out classed Leicester footballing wise and but somehow found themselves behind to a Matt Doherty own goal. A Maddison freekick secured the victory. A ugly victory against Southampton, only Maguires long range shot secured Leicester victory, a loss to Liverpool at home followed. Then a 4-2 loss against Bournemouth. Bournemouth badly exposed Wes Morgan in that game, and Morgan was later sent off to compound his own misery. A victory against Huddersfield showed us what Ghezzal could or couldn't do. An absolutely dreadful 45 minutes saw him replaced with Marc Albrighton. Albrighton changed the game and Leicester recovered from the early Huddersfield goal to win 3-1. Newcastle then awaited. An easy 2-0 victory was likely the best part of the season. 

The 27th of October I was in Cleveland and Leicester were on telly playing West Ham, my brother in law stayed at his house and whilst he watched Purdue play, I watched Leicester struggle to watch Leicester draw 1-1 with West Ham. Another awful performance lead to more questions about Puel. But then the result of the game became unimportant as Khun Vichai's helicopter crashed outside the stadium, all on board including Khun died. Thoughts of crap football and concerns about the footballing direction of the club were immediately forgotten about as a human tragedy unfolded outside the King Power Stadium. Puel handled the situation with poise and dignity. For a time the poor form of the team was forgotten about on the 3rd of November, Leicester played Cardiff in an emotional game, Cardiff hosted the game and paid their respects to Leicester City in a very classy way. Their own tragedy was to follow later in the season when they lost Emiliano Sala in a plane accident over the English Channel.  Demari Gray scored for City that day and emotion poured out of the side. Kasper Schmeichel had witnessed the helicopter crash and was visible moved by all the events during before, during and after the Cardiff game. Khun Vichai was truly a great man and touched almost everyone with his kindness and humbleness,despite being a billionaire. The next home match against Burnley, was Leicester's first after the tragedy. Leicester though couldn't beat Joe Hart that day. The game ended nil nil, the Chairman's son nicknamed Top, took an emotional lap around the pitch with Puel, the team and a collection of former managers following him. If you didn't cry that day watching that, you have no soul. Khun Vichai through King Power had put a lot in to Leicester City football and put them in a better position than they had even been in. But what Khun Vichai really did to endear himself to the city as a whole was support hospitals and local charities. Rarely does a chairman go beyond his own football club in such an amazing way. 

As life returned to normal for the players, results didn't improve, hopes for an improvement in form because of the tragedy didn't materialize but at Christmas something rather unexpected happened. Leicester played Chelsea away, in the first half, Leicester where getting battered as the half time whistle blew, amazingly though they hadn't conceded despite Chelsea hitting the bar. They came out in the second and something had changed in the team, Maddison put Vardy through and Vardy did what he does best. Amazingly City had scored and even more amazingly they clung on to win the game. Next followed Manchester City, the champions, they scored early, I watched and thought well here starts the bumming but amazingly Albrighton scored on 19 minutes and in the second half Ricardo won the game with a devastating drive from outside the box. Leicester had beaten Manchester City and Chelsea in the space of 4 days, they had reverted somewhat to the system that won them the league. Letting the other team have the ball and hit them on the break. The inclusion of Hamza Choudury solidified the midfield and against teams like Chelsea and Man City the tactic worked amazing. But then came Cardiff, an off performance followed. Cardiff closed ranks let City have the ball and hit City on the break. The euphoria and optimism of previous two games had now gone entirely. What followed was Puel's final victory as Leicester City manager, Ghezzal again started and again was removed for Marc Albrighton. Making a pass seems to be Ghezzals weakness, Albrighton thou is far more positive in his game. Riccardo in the second half picked up the ball and put Vardy through. Vardy did the rest, luckily that day we had played Everton, who were equally out of form, played even worse. 

In the league games that followed, City only picked 1 point up from a possible 18, a credible draw against Liverpool at Liverpool. In the FA Cup lost a weakened team lost to Newport County. The 23rd of February 2019, Leicester played Crystal Palace at home. I woke up feeling optimistic about the game. The previous game against Spurs, Youri Tielemans had made his debut for the club and looked like a real footballer. He made Ndidi look like the player he could be. Ndidi had spent most of the season alongside Mendy. But Mendy and Ndidi were not a good partnership. The omens going into the Crystal Palace game were not good, Roy Hodgson was undefeated against Leicester and Palace had beaten Leicester 9-0 over the last three games. By the time of the 4th goal went was witnessed by about 10000 people. At full time the final score read Leicester City 1 - Crystal Palace 4. Puels reign was coming to an end by 5:00 am on Sunday morning, my wrist was going mental and my phone wouldn't stop vibrating. It was Sibbo, Top had decided enough was enough. Top had pulled the trigger, Claude Puel was relieved of his duties and for the large majority of Leicester fans breathed a huge sigh of relief. Seeing no progress with the team and being concerned with the fans reaction to the 16 months of Puel, Top acted. 

What went wrong for Puel though at Leicester? Puel appears to be decent guy, James Sharpe wrote a piece summarizing Puels reign saying that when Sharpe left the Leicester Mercury, Puel invited him to his office and thanked for his commentary on the team both good and bad. I think the first point to deal with would be his demeanor, Puel isn't a Martin O'Neil like figure kicking every ball and constantly moving. Puel is more Arsene Wenger like in that he doesn't really move unless something has annoyed him. Puel of course was a Wenger player at Monaco. The amount of foreign managers in the English game is huge is almost easier to name the clubs with English managers these days. Burnley, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace being the obvious ones, so being in a foreign country, you have to talk another language. Some managers can do this easily, Arsene Wenger can supposedly talk 5 languages, Puel when he talks french often sounds like a french man does when they talk their mother tongue. They are making love to the air with the words when they speak. But when Puel has to speak english, its all together different and something that is hard for me to understand. He doesn't seem at east talking English. Even Sarri at Chelsea can somewhat speak English in ways I can understand. I've often wondered if Puel's issues with the team started with his demeanour and English. 

The second point to me is the football he played, on Saturday against Palace for the first 40 minutes, Leicester played some lovely football, none of it particular threatening though. This was often the story under Puel, for example, in December of 2018, Leicester travelled to Southampton for a Premier League encounter, Southampton at that point where playing relegation football but Leicester took advantage and battered Southampton 4-1. The Southampton version of the Puel In brigade all felt vindicated as Leicester ran riot, even Andy King and Shinji Okazaki scored for Leicester that night. First forward to the end of the season when Leicester played Southampton at home and the result was toothless game, in which Leicester had all of the ball but Southampton packed the defense. Puels system effectively killed what Leicester had built the Championship winning season on, the great escape and Premier League win on. The lighting fast counter attack, to often teams figured out that to stop Leicester all you had to do was do what they had done to so many teams during 2015/2016. The style of play was awful, I'm all for possession based football, watching a team like Manchester City is beautiful at its best but Leicester were  ponderous in their attacks and it made them the third worst goal scoring team from open play in the Premier League.         

The players, especially the senior players were not that impressed with Puel. He was in stark contrast to Nigel Pearson and Claudio Ranieri. The style of play has hurt Jamie Vardy in particular. He is an older player now but posses one thing that defenders fear, searing pace, even at 32 he is still one of the fastest players at the club but Puels system has crippled his goal scoring. While Vardy never publicly called Puel on his striker crippling football, he did say Puels style didn't suit him but offered a willing attitude to learn Puels system. With in hours of Puel leaving, Robert Huth, who is now without a club expressed his feelings about Puel's lack of inspiration and how he felt Puel worked against the players. The day after Vicente Iborra, who was the footballer that Puels system needed essentially said the same thing about Puel. Puel was often touted by the experts as a man who develops talent, to this point I'm not so sure. Eden Hazard is his most famous player he could claim to have develop. But even then I have a problem with that. In France, Puel worked for mostly clubs that couldn't afford big transfers so he worked with his youth squad, so he didn't develop them. He just game them the chance to play in the first team. In his time at Leicester, he has been very lucky, City had an aging full back in Christian Fuchs but had Ben Chillwell behind him, Chillwell has been given his chance under Puel (though he was playing under Ranieri and Shakespeare also). Chilwell still is slightly naive but is getting better, he suited Puels system where the full backs push on. Joining the attack and keeping the other teams wingers deeper. Then there was Hamza Choudury, a man with a ridiculous haircut, Puel gave him his debut, in 2017/2018 and Choudury took his time but is developing into a decent player. This season Puel decided he was going to play two holding midfielders in Ndidi and Mendy. The partnership has looked abysmal, they are two similar. If Ghezzal is a poor mans Mahrez, Mendy must be a bankrupt mans Neil Lennon. Mendy offers nothing going forward, looks physically over matched and really isn't a good passer but Puel persisted with him. Yet against Chelsea and Manchester City. Choudury played his heart out but hasn't played much since. But Mendy continues to play, despite being out played. There is also the case of Adrien Silva, who was frozen out of the club by Puel. Despite Puel needing a footballer for the midfield. It's been alleged he froze out Jon Rudkin of meetings about Silva. Yet all season long continued with a under performing pair of Mendy and Ndidi.

Puel certainly has favorites, the man that is bring youth through stuck to a aging and declining Wes Morgan for too long, stuck by Mendy despite being poor and seems impressed with Ghezzal despite him rarely playing 90 minutes cause he's so poor. Diabate was another one of Puels favorites, a 21 year Mali international brought in from France upon the recommendation of Puel's son. Scored two on his debut against League One Peterborough but did nothing else after. Showed flashes of a player but flashes were all they stayed. But at the club there was a kid called Harvey Barnes, where ever City have sent him, he's been a star and he's done it in England and knows the pace of the game in England but Puel kept playing the ineffective Diabate. Who to me seemed slow and weak. In the last 5 games barnes has come back to Leicester from his loan spell and looked every part the Premier League footballer. Puels love of Diabate seemed to hurt Grays impact on the team as Gray had been doing well then all of a sudden Diabate was undroppable. 

Puels subs seemed to come straight from the corridors of Crackerbox Palace, it's understandable that the fans yelled at him that he didn't know what he was doing. Too often an effective player was withdrawn for Daniel Amartey or Ghezzal. At the start of Puel, I often thought well maybe there's some sense in that sub, by the end I was just swearing at my TV as Ghezzal came on and did an impression of sunday pub league trying to avoid the dog turds on the pitch. Or Puels favorite sub was Iheanacho (a striker) on the right wing and Demari Gray (a winger) playing striker.

Despite the myths attached to Puel, he left with a win percentage lower than Peter Taylors, the transition of to his system has not taken as long as what people had thought, see the Southampton games example. His system just doesn't work, he basically repeated what he was doing at Southampton. They too suffered from a similar low scoring record. He didn't connect with the fans, he alienated older players, and he was essentially a average manger in France. What did the club and Rudkin think he was going to do at Leicester? Granted Ranieri was a fluke but he at least had a track record in Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League of getting results. So despite his failure with Greece there was a good chance of City doing with Ranieri. Puel though, he basically is the Howard Wilkinson of French football, as a manager in France had won the French League title with the lowest points ever and 9 loses. The French version of the charity shield and the intertoto cup. He was the Lyon manager that ended their seven title run, he finished third. The firing from Southampton now makes sense. We all understood he wanted to play possession football but what it actually was boring, he wasted 16 months of Vardy, brought garbage like Diabate and Ghezzal. Stuck by underperforming players like Mendy and Morgan. When Leicester fired him, relief was felt, I was dancing in my kitchen at 5am in the morning. It was sad the way it had ended but Top acted for the best interest of Leicester City football. Two days later on Tuesday 26th February, Celtic's manager, Brendan Rodgers left Celtic and by 7pm in the UK announced the new Leicester City manager. A wave of excitement and optimism came out of the club. Puel had never generated that enthusiasm during his appointment. Time will tell about Rodgers but I know one thing. He will be better than Puel.