‘SOUTHAMPTON WERE WRONG TO SACK PUEL’

SOUTHAMPTON greats Lawrie McMenemy and Mick Channon have said the club were wrong to sack Claude Puel.

Saints finished eighth in the Premier League and reached the EFL Cup Final at Wembley but a lack of goals — they scored only 17 times in 19 home league games — saw the Frenchman fired after a single season at St Mary’s.

Channon, who made over 500 appearances for the club over two spells on the south coast, believes the 55-year-old was harshly treated.

“Well I don’t think he did a bad job,” Channon said.

“I don’t know the politics of it. They never scored goals, t hey didn’t win games at the end of the year.

“They should have won the League Cup — if they had would they have sacked him?

“It wasn’t his fault Charlie Austin was injured for most of the season.

“Why sack someone if you’ve got no-one better? Personally I think they were wrong to sack him.

“On the other hand, the football has not been attractive and not enough goals so the season ended on a disappointment for the supporters.

“They didn’t like the way their team played, there were too many changes for me — 250 changes over the season.

“On t he l ast day t he majority (of supporters) left and the ones that stayed didn’t applaud when the manager came out.”