The underrated anti-hero

[Sly]

I’m talking about Claude Puel.

 

Our best years were under Rodgers in terms of where we finished consistently in the Premier League and also that historic FA Cup win.

 

However similar to the praise Pearson gets, Puel laid some solid foundations for what came afterwards.

 

Look at the signings that were made on his watch.

 

Maddison, Ricardo, Soyuncu, Benkovic, Ward, Ghezzel, Evans, Diabate, Tielemans and Lotente (If you don’t know that story he was an Italian waiter signed by Vichai)

 

Clearly Puel got a lot wrong with some questionable decisions, however he also got a lot right as well. His dignity with the passing of Vichai and how he conducted himself was faultless. His treatment of Vardy and the boring football, less so. 
 

He was also the person that nurtured Saliba and Fofana, who were arguably two of the hottest prospects in French football. 
 

He is maybe the person that is required in the Director of Football role, rather than Head Coach. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

10 minutes ago, Sly said:

I’m talking about Claude He was also the person that nurtured Saliba and Fofana, who were arguably two of the hottest prospects in French football. 

 

 

He also got them relegated 

[Soar Fox]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

I’m talking about Claude Puel.

 

Our best years were under Rodgers in terms of where we finished consistently in the Premier League and also that historic FA Cup win.

 

However similar to the praise Pearson gets, Puel laid some solid foundations for what came afterwards.

 

Look at the signings that were made on his watch.

 

Maddison, Ricardo, Soyuncu, Benkovic, Ward, Ghezzel, Evans, Diabate, Tielemans and Lotente (If you don’t know that story he was an Italian waiter signed by Vichai)

 

Clearly Puel got a lot wrong with some questionable decisions, however he also got a lot right as well. His dignity with the passing of Vichai and how he conducted himself was faultless. His treatment of Vardy and the boring football, less so. 
 

He was also the person that nurtured Saliba and Fofana, who were arguably two of the hottest prospects in French football. 
 

He is maybe the person that is required in the Director of Football role, rather than Head Coach. 

He handled it no differently than anyone else would have done if they were the manager at the time. 
 

He made a few good signings during his time here and he also made some bad signings as well. The football was terrible the treatment of Vardy even worse. 
 

The last job he had since managing us was 4 years ago which then seen him sacked after sitting bottom of the French league. 

[splinterdream]

He was given a task, and that was to turn us into from a counter attacking side to.a more possession based side, he needed to start with players who weren't comfortable with the ball and were being told to play football in a different way, despite having won the league. It was a huge task.

He started by playing with 2 pivot defensive midfielders, and 1 forward, which is how Rodgers played, however the problem we had is we didn't have the talent to link midfield to attack and vardy suffered as he wasnt a kane type player, im guessing objections and in house squabbling was why he was dropped, nevertheless the job was completed when we signed tielemens and vardy did end up playing 1 upfront for the rest of his career. I dont know if all of that can be credited to Puel, but there was a reason Rodgers took us when he did, that's because he knew we were already set up very well

[teblin]

Other than maybe Ricardo, the signings were mainly due to a good head of recruitment i'd have thought at the time rather than Claude.

[Finnegan]

Oh **** me, more Puel revisionism. 

 

[funkyrobot]

Purely for the signing of Danny Ward, he should be treated like the defeated Napoleon and exiled to spend the rest of his days on the remote island of St Helena. That’s without even considering what historic French themed punishment he could receive for the signing of bad Mahrez lookalike Ghezzal. 

[pmcla26]

The level Rodgers got out of the players when he first came in and in 19/20 shows how much Puel underachieved in 18/19 with that team. 

[filbertway]

He was also tasked with turning a squad that played something resembling Rugby into a footballing unit. That meant upsetting a lot of players, senior ones as well. 

 

He made a lot of tough decisions and laid some great foundations. As a manager, all I really want is that when they leave the club, that it's in a better state than when they joined. He did that, I don't think anyone can disagree.

 

His football was painful to watch, but the actual managerial work he did for us was top tier. It is worth mentioning that he only had Youri for a handful of games. Got to assume that the football would have been slightly more entertaining once he wasn't relying on Ndidi and Mendy to get the ball forwards.

 

A real shame that Rodgers was all ego and made every decision about himself rather than the club though, because we played some thrilling stuff under him for the first year or so of his tenure.

[filbertway]

1 hour ago, funkyrobot said:

Purely for the signing of Danny Ward, he should be treated like the defeated Napoleon and exiled to spend the rest of his days on the remote island of St Helena. That’s without even considering what historic French themed punishment he could receive for the signing of bad Mahrez lookalike Ghezzal. 

That is mad though. Danny Ward ffs.

[brookfox]

Rumour has it, drying paint uses Claude Puel as an idiom when describing something dull.

[filbertway]

1 minute ago, brookfox said:

Rumour has it, drying paint uses Claude Puel as an idiom when describing something dull.

He just preparing us for the 2nd half of Rodgers tenure and all of Enzo's  

[VLC86]

Director of Football? This is the bloke that the players have very openly described as “a struggle” due to his communication style yet he’s got to communicate a philosophy to the entire club? Nah.

 

Like the OP said, he did a lot right recruitment wise and helped guide the club through a difficult time but move on. I can’t take a man seriously who chose to play Dimi Gray up front over Vardy.

[filbertway]

2 minutes ago, VLC86 said:

Director of Football? This is the bloke that the players have very openly described as “a struggle” due to his communication style yet he’s got to communicate a philosophy to the entire club? Nah.

 

Like the OP said, he did a lot right recruitment wise and helped guide the club through a difficult time but move on. I can’t take a man seriously who chose to play Dimi Gray up front over Vardy.

A lot of credit has to be given to Macia as well who will have been in charge of indentifying the talents that were brought through. I think the job Puel did was selfless, in that he did a lot of the stuff that was going to be unpopular both with fans and players. Overall though, the job he did was for the betterment of the club.

 

Don't disagree with any of your points though. Although I do think he was right to try and ease Vardy out, just replacing him with Dimi wasn't the way to go  We built up an unhealthy co-dependence with Vardy and I think it has affected us at times.

[Torten]

2 minutes ago, filbertway said:

A lot of credit has to be given to Macia as well who will have been in charge of indentifying the talents that were brought through. I think the job Puel did was selfless, in that he did a lot of the stuff that was going to be unpopular both with fans and players. Overall though, the job he did was for the betterment of the club.

 

Don't disagree with any of your points though. Although I do think he was right to try and ease Vardy out, just replacing him with Dimi wasn't the way to go  We built up an unhealthy co-dependence with Vardy and I think it has affected us at times.

Trying to ease out the Vardy of 17-19 is absolutely bonkers as he was still world class at the time and arguably his best was still to come. 

[plinchiestincture]

This is just adding Puel to the fire.

[Raj]

He was fecking shite

[Sol thewall Bamba]

"Claude Poo-Hell" had to be the worst Leicester fan unfunny nickname. Closely followed by "Timmy Chestnuts". 

[Finnegan]

The only thing Claude Puel is good for is using as a measuring stick to compare just how bad Brendan Rodgers is at recruitment and coaching a defence. 

 

Puel wasn't amazing at those things, Rodgers was just absolutely abysmal. This is the man that insisted that Liverpool sign Tom Ince instead of Phillip Coutinho for **** sakes. 

 

Puel only comes off with any credit because of Rodgers unbelievably huge flaws. It's like the idiots trying to defend Cooper by pointing at the fact Ruud is a terrible manager. 

 

At least, to his credit, Rodgers also had some very good strengths to (mostly) balance things out somewhat. 

 

I mean Benkovic, Ward, Ghezzal and Diabate is a combined outlay of, what, 50 - 55m? And people like to wank themselves off over how great a builder he was?

 

Edited 18 June 2025 by Finnegan

[Noahfence]

I will never forget the Puel in/out debates on Twitter. Andy “Bisnos” Sibson smiling down from heaven 

[RowlattsFox]

Whenever someone says Puel was underrated, it makes me think he was overrated

 

We've had worse, but we've definitely had better. It was a tough time to manage us as transition was needed and he had some of the right ideas, his football was dire though and his personality didn't help. 

[filbertway]

16 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

The only thing Claude Puel is good for is using as a measuring stick to compare just how bad Brendan Rodgers is at recruitment and coaching a defence. 

 

Puel wasn't amazing at those things, Rodgers was just absolutely abysmal. This is the man that insisted that Liverpool sign Tom Ince instead of Phillip Coutinho for **** sakes. 

 

Puel only comes off with any credit because of Rodgers unbelievably huge flaws. It's like the idiots trying to defend Cooper by pointing at the fact Ruud is a terrible manager. 

 

At least, to his credit, Rodgers also had some very good strengths to (mostly) balance things out somewhat. 

 

I mean Benkovic, Ward, Ghezzal and Diabate is a combined outlay of, what, 50 - 55m? And people like to wank themselves off over how great a builder he was?

 

Geoff Peters burner account?

[South Shire Fox]

Puel was putrid and would of only of been here 12 months if the club wasnt mourning the death of its owner. He bought Ricardo and Tielemans which were his top achievements and had a few young players like Maddison assembled by the recruitment team. His other signings of Ghezzal and Diabate were shocking. Tried forcing Vardy out the club who then went on to win the golden boot the season after.

The fact he had a talented squad heading towards the relegation zone which Rodgers managed to take into the Europa league says everything you need to know about his coaching ability. Shite at Southampton, shite at Lyon, shite at us

Edited 18 June 2025 by South Shire Fox

[Stadt]

He had Vardy and Mahrez in their primes. With two demonstrably world class footballers the best he could muster up was a 9th placed finish behind Burnley and the Jagielka, Rooney, Ashley Williams era Everton. He personally vouched for Ghezzal for £12m despite everybody knowing that wouldn't work out. 

 

Then the style of play was so laboured and dithering that we always went behind first and only looked like scoring after abandoning our initial approach.

 

A Schmeichel, Fuchs/Chilwell, Maguire, Morgan, Ndidi, Mahrez, Vardy, Iheanacho team should have finished 7th.

Edited 18 June 2025 by Stadt

[Stadt]

Also what is the obsession with trying to appoint ex-managers as DoFs?

 

Appoint a good director of football with a proven track record in that position, you wouldn't sign a goalkeeper to play in midfield because he's good with his feet.