There’s been a lot of rumours lately surrounding the future of Claude Puel at Southampton.
Coming over from Nice with a lot of promise, the French manager’s first season in the Premier League hasn’t exactly gone as well as he would have liked, even if he did steer the club to an EFL Cup final against Manchester United, which they probably should have won.
Lying ninth in the table, Southampton have somewhat underperformed in the league, and there have been rumours the club are looking around at potential replacements, including Hull’s Marco Silva.
However, there also have been a few stories linking Puel with another job, that of Saint-Etienne in France, whose long-term manager Christophe Galtier is set to step down at the end of the season.
A premature return to Ligue 1 was never really on the Frenchman’s agenda, and it appears that is going to remain the case, as France Bleu are reporting the Southampton manager has no plans of taking Galtier’s job for next season.
The radio station’s website explain the job was offered to Puel, as Saint-Etienne were big fans of what he achieved at both Lille and Nice, but the 55-year-old decided to politely tell them no.
Whether he will still be at St Mary’s next season remains to be seen, but, if he isn’t, it appears he won’t be taking over at Kurt Zouma’s former club either.
