Puel rule to get Foxes’ tails up
Former Southampton boss Puel, 56, was unveiled at the King Power Stadium after his appointment on Wednesday and pledged to get the club back on the up.
He is their third manager in eight months following the sackings of Claudio Ranieri and Craig Shakespeare.
“There are difficulties here at the moment but now to be here and be a Fox – it’s fantastic,” said Puel. “It’s a great opportunity. The Premier League is top level and it’s almost like playing Champions League football every week.”
Frenchman Puel was axed by Southampton in June just 12 months into his deal and has been brought in to replace Shakespeare, who was sacked after only four months.
Puel is eager to dispel the notion that it was his boring, uninspiring style of play that saw him dismissed at Southampton despite the club finishing eighth and reaching the final of the League Cup.
But he said: “It is not a priority to play good football, or nice football. The priority is to win. It’s about getting good results.
“Southampton was a good opportunity and a good challenge but it’s finished. I want to look forward.
“We finished eighth, which was pretty decent – ahead of us were the big six. I was pleased with how things went. Looking back, I think it was a reasonable effort.”
His first match will be against an Everton side under caretaker boss David Unsworth, who is now the leading candidate to secure the manager’s job permanently.
Unsworth, 44, was promoted from his role as Under-23 and academy manager to take charge on a temporary basis after Ronald Koeman was sacked on Monday.
He has held positive talks with Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri about the position in the past few days.
And the Daily Express now understands Everton are not currently courting anyone else for the Goodison Park hotseat.
He has impressed the Everton hierarchy with the reaction he received from the players on the training ground. And should Everton’s results and performances match that then the ex-Everton defender will be confirmed as Koeman’s successor.
Unsworth claims price tags will not mean anything to him when he picks his team.
The Toffees invested heavily in their squad during the summer as Koeman splashed out £140million on new recruits.
However, striker Wayne Rooney was the only outfield player signed by the Dutchman that Unsworth picked for the first game of his temporary stint – a 2-1 defeat by Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
Unsworth insists there was nothing sinister behind his decision not to select the likes of £45m playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson or £23.6m midfielder Davy Klaassen.
When asked ahead of tomorrow’s Leicester clash about big-money buys and preferential treatment, he said: “I will always pick what I believe is the strongest team to win a game.
“I picked a team who I thought would perform and win a game of football.
“It doesn’t matter if they are new signings, or if they have come through the ranks.” Midfielder Idrissa Gueye is poised to sign a new five-year contract with Everton after turning in impressive displays since a £7.2m switch from Aston Villa in 2016. P W D L F A Pts Man City 9 8 1 0 32 4 25 Man Utd 9 6 2 1 22 4 20 Tottenham Hotspur 9 6 2 1 19 6 20 Chelsea 9 5 1 3 17 10 16 Watford 9 4 3 2 15 17 15 Newcastle 9 4 2 3 10 8 14 Burnley 9 3 4 2 8 9 13 Liverpool 9 3 4 2 14 16 13 Southampton 9 3 3 3 8 9 12 Huddersfield 9 3 3 3 7 10 12 Brighton 9 3 2 4 9 10 11 West Brom 9 2 4 3 7 10 10 Leicester 9 2 3 4 12 14 9 Swansea 9 2 2 5 6 10 8 West Ham 9 2 2 5 8 17 8 Stoke 9 2 2 5 10 20 8 Everton 9 2 2 5 7 18 8 AFC Bournemouth 9 2 1 6 6 13 7 Crystal Palace 9 1 0 8 2 19 3