If Leicester fans ignore Southampton stint Puel looks a decent choice

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Southampton aside, Claude Puel’s time with Monaco, Lille and Nice seems to make him a good choice as manager for Leicester.

Craig Shakespeare looks on prior to the Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Leicester City.

Leicester City fans have hardly been bowled over with the appointment of Claude Puel as their new manager following the sacking of Craig Shakespeare.

That is perhaps unsurprising when the Frenchman was sacked four months ago after just a season in charge at Southampton, during which time he did reach the League Cup final but also lost 16 of his 38 Premier League matches and played largely uninspiring football.

Claude Puel, manager of Southampton, looks on prior to the Premier League match against West Bromwich Albion.

However, if Puel’s time at St Mary’s is taken as an anomaly when looking at his managerial career as a whole then maybe it is not such a bad decision from the Foxes’ hierarchy.

Before joining the Saints the 56-year-old had managed exclusively in his native France, winning the Ligue 1 title in his first job at Monaco – a club he had played for as a midfielder for 17 years – their last triumph in the division before Leonadro Jardim guided them to top spot last season.

Puel moved on to Lille and helped establish them once again on both the domestic and European scene, beating the likes of Manchester United, AC Milan and Liverpool in the Champions League, cultivating young talent such as Eden Hazard, and laying the foundations for future success during his six-year spell.

Chelsea’s Eden Hazard celebrates after scoring during a UEFA Champions league group stage football match against Roma.

Next up was Lyon, which was admittedly less successful and ended in a sacking in 2011, but did also include a Champions League semi-final.

Puel was then appointed by Nice and performed a similar job as he had done at Lille, taking a struggling club and battling against those around him with larger resources by utilising young talent to defy the odds, twice finishing fourth in the French top tier and qualifying for Europe before his exit for England in 2016.