Claude Puel sacked: Leicester union was a mismatch for which time and patience ran out

After such a difficult season, Puel’s dismissal will allow the club to start from scratch in the summer

There is a saying in Major League Baseball that towns fire managers, the owners just give them the bad news.

Rarely in the Premier League has that been more applicable than to Claude Puel’s dismissal by Leicester City, an uneasy marriage that only needed a bad run of form – seven defeats in nine games – to confirm that the two parties simply weren’t right for each other. The fans had already known that for some time.

That isn’t necessarily the most unusual thing in the Premier League. Indeed, there have been plenty of fairly productive manager-club pairings that seemed to broadly work out on the field only for a personality clash to become obvious and sour things irreparably. The peculiarity is that two of the most obvious recent examples both involve Puel, first at Southampton and now in Leicestershire.

Since Puel divorced from his uneasy marriage on the south coast and moved into his next uncomfortable union with the Foxes, Leicester have the 11th-most points of any Premier League team. Had they managed a couple of wins in the last few weeks they’d be 7th, behind only the league’s cabal of superclubs.

Those numbers might not suggest that he has underachieved but that remains the view of Leicester’s hierarchy, who believe their squad is good enough to be playing in Europe.

Leicester CEO Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha – known simply as ‘Top’ – made the decision to part ways with Puel after watching Crystal Palace’s 4-1 win at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

It wasn’t a 4-1 game, rather Leicester ran into Palace’s counter-attacking trap and, having made life hard for themselves, made things worse by conceding two late goals that put a harsh veneer on the result.

They should have known, however, that Palace were one of only three teams in the league with more points away than at home (the other two being Tottenham and Manchester United) and that their counter-attacking style was purpose-made to take advantage of Puel’s slightly pedestrian, possession-based game.

Puel’s teams tend to play decent enough football but, despite his past successes, teams do tire of him with alarming speed. At Leicester it was players with a heavyweight presence in the dressing room, like Jamie Vardy, who he alienated with his training methods and personality. It had seen him close to the sack over the Christmas period until a couple of well-timed wins over Chelsea and Manchester City earned Puel a stay of execution. The axe has since dropped, and in the squad there will be few tears.

The Frenchman now falls into a peculiar bracket of manager who is considered a moderate success but who may struggle to get another job in England as his reputation for being a cause of internal friction spreads.

The Frenchman lost the support of a number of heavyweight players in the Leicester changing room (PA)

Brendan Rodgers was softly approached when Leicester considered doing away with Puel in midwinter but indicated a preference to see out the season with Celtic. Should he feel like a cycle has ended in Glasgow then a return to the Premier League may finally be on the cards for Rodgers, a man whose reputation rose to the stratosphere and then clunked back down to earth violently while with Liverpool.

In the immediate term, what the club needs is someone to lift the mood. Perhaps it will be Michael Appleton as interim boss, auditioning for his own tilt at a top-flight gig, who brings the joy back to Leicester. Perhaps it will be Rodgers’ gleaming white smile next year.

But after such a difficult season, Puel’s dismissal will allow the club to start from scratch in the summer.

The town knew he had to go, it was just up to Top to deliver the news. A mismatch, for which time and patience ran out.