Football
Mark Rodden 8y

Claude Puel: Southampton is ideal club for me

Claude Puel believes Southampton are an "ideal" club for him and that he will fit in well on the south coast of England after leaving Nice.

Puel, 54, was appointed as new Saints boss last week after Ronald Koeman left to take over at Everton.

The experienced French coach guided Nice to fourth in Ligue 1 last season and he is hopeful he can bring continued success to Southampton, who finished sixth in the Premier League.

"They're a consistent, well-run and financially-stable club," Puel told L'Equipe.

"They're well structured and have the best training centre in England.

"The team works with players they bought and with players who started at the club," he added.

"They wanted a coach who's comfortable in the training role and who could continue to develop their 'young players' project.

"It's the ideal place for me... There's everything needed to succeed."

Puel reportedly turned down advances from Anderlecht, Bordeaux and Galatasaray before taking the Southampton job.

He said he could have joined Porto in 2005 and West Bromwich Albion in 2012 but the former Monaco, Lyon and Lille boss now feels ready for his first experience of coaching abroad.

He plans to take classes to improve his English but will be aided initially by assistant manager Eric Black, who spent several years playing in France.

Southampton start their Premier League campaign at home to Watford on August 13 and Puel is looking forward to the "very nice challenge" that his new role represents.

"The goal is to rub shoulders with the biggest clubs within five years by moving step by step," he said.

"Sixth last year was good but it shouldn't be forgotten that Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea didn't have a great league campaign.

"We have a squad playing well. I have a lot of smaller, quite technical players so it's not much of a change for me from Nice. And the philosophy of the club is to play with the ball [on the ground]."

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