Pir pressure still on Puel
CLAUDE PUEL feels Leicester are benefiting from not sacking him in the summer but admits the “piranhas” may return soon.
Foxes manager Puel survived the axe despite finishing with five defeats in seven games. It saw the Frenchman describe the Premier League as a “piranha club” amid a clamour from unhappy fans for his exit.
Now grumblings are starting to grow again after successive defeats ahead of West Ham’s visit today. But Puel, in charge a year, said: “The club take the right direction. Look at the recruitment and the extension of all the contracts since the beginning of the season.
“It is fantastic to keep Harry Maguire, Kasper Schmeichel, Wilfred Ndidi and Ben Chilwell. All these young, talented players can continue in the club. It is the right way and direction to continue to improve.
“With experience it is important to keep calm in all situations against pressure. I know there is not a lot of margin for error. But it’s important to find a good balance between results and work to build something strong for the club for a long time.” Meanwhile, West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini is set to hand Grady Diangana a first Premier League start today. The right-sided midfielder, 20, joined the club at the age of 12 and Pellegrini said: “I trust in him because for me, one of the most important things, as a player is that when you have the ball, you give the ball to a player in the same colour shirt.
“That is the basic thing for a player and Diangana always starts with that, he loses very few balls during the game.
“I think that in this season he will be a player in the first squad playing a lot of games.” Teenager Declan Rice, above, is already a regular in Pellegrini’s side and the manager says he will continue to keep an eye on the rest of the club’s youngsters.
He said: “One of the things that I asked the board was to bring the young players to train near the senior players.
“I think that they improve more when they work near the old players, the professional players.
“For me it is easier to see more players I like for the first team and that is what we are doing here.”