Saint-Etienne, who aspired to return to Europe next season, had a terrible nightmare with a terrible seventeenth place in Ligue 1.
Qualifying for the Europa League group stage, Saint-Etienne was preparing for a very exciting season last summer. But there was still a doubt with the departure of Jean-Louis Gasset, who was replaced by his former assistant, Ghislain Printant. Very quickly, the first negative results weakened the position of the former coach of Bastia. A few days before the derby against Lyon on October 6, Saint-Etienne made the heavy decision to fire Ghislain Printant and to appoint Claude Puel. The manager of the Greens won the derby (1-0) before going on to the good results.
M’Vila is loose on Puel
Unfortunately, that did not last for Saint-Etienne, whose situation is today very worrying. And on his Instagram account, Yann M’Vila came out of the woods to criticize Claude Puel. Nothing surprising when you know that the French international was a real soldier of the former coach, Jean-Louis Gasset. “Claude Puel is a good coach but perhaps not with good manners. He wants everyone to go his way. It is not close to the players as we have known. And that’s what we like. You can walk next to him without him talking to you. Nothing. What I regret in the championship is that we have a put *** of group that lives super well, but there is something wrong. Last year, the group lives well and we are going to the Europa League. How do I explain it? These are the choices of the coach … In the field it’s a lack of confidence “ launched Rennes’ former defensive midfielder.
Management to be relaxed?
Very harsh words about Claude Puel … but not really surprising. Indeed, this is not the first time that the very special management of the 58-year-old technician has been criticized this season. A few weeks after his departure for Major League Soccer in the winter transfer window, Robert Beric regretted Claude Puel’s lack of communication, indicating in particular that he had only spoken to him twice in more than three months. “I was never able to follow up. With Puel, we spoke twice: when he arrived and when I left. He was honest with me. He told me he liked fast attackers. From there, it was complicated for me. I’m a surface player, a finisher, who we can lean back to on. I am not a player who will sprint like Mbappé! Since Puel has been here, the team has often played with eight defensive players “ railed Robert Beric, who is now playing in Chicago, far from the very special management of Claude Puel.
Now remains to be seen if Claude Puel will succeed in developing his methods, he who has slowly built the reputation of the bad guy in Saint-Etienne as this pretty annoying anecdote revealed by RMC journalist Gilbert Brisbois on March 20 and reported by FootRadio.com. “Claude Puel’s new staff, when they arrived in Saint-Etienne, they saw Palencia at the first training. And then they say to themselves: “Wait, who is this one? Is he from the training center? Because it’s not at the level there? ” And there he was told, “Wait, this is Palencia, he just signed for four years.” It’s fantastic anyway ”. We understood that Claude Puel will have to learn to be more diplomatic if he wants to obtain long-term results in a club such as AS Saint-Etienne …