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Toulouse FC travel to the French capital to take on Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 on Saturday and Philippe Montanier’s men arrive in impressive form with six wins from their last seven across all competitions and unbeaten in 2023. TFC thumped Troyes 4-1 on Wednesday to arrive at Parc des Princes full of confidence, but it is not only going right on the field at present for the Occitania club — things have come a long way in nearly three years of RedBird Capital Partners’ ownership.
Club president Damien Comolli sat down exclusively with CBS Sports’ House of Champions to discuss a productive January transfer window as well as Toulouse’s data revolution, impressive use of modern management strategies and boxing smart when it comes to comparatively limited resources. The former Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Saint-Etienne and Fenerbahce executive was happy with TFC’s performance in the recent winter window.
“We are very pleased with what we have done,” said Comolli of the signings of Gabriel Suazo, Warren Kamanzi, Vincent Sierro, and Said Hamulic. “We had a couple of issues coming into this window with long term injuries, notably at fullback, and our starting left back let us know in December that he had to leave for personal reasons. We got Kamanzi the Norwegian under-21 and Suazo who was Colo-Colo captain and Chile starting left-back which is amazing for us. We also signed a midfielder from BSC Young Boys (Sierro) to solve our midfield injury crisis and then we prepared for the future in attack with Hamulic who has great potential.
“We approached the strikers market looking for opportunities as we are a small club from a big city but still a small club which is trying to grow bigger. We are at the bottom of the food chain so we look at what is left after everybody above us has eaten. Hamulic helps us to kill two birds with one stone as he can help our situation now even if he is mainly one for the future. Overall, we got players who, to us, we should not normally be able to get.”
Toulouse have been at the forefront of the data revolution in soccer thanks to RedBird’s deal with Zelus analytics and an excellent recruitment department which includes Brendan MacFarlane and Julia Arpizou. This approach has enabled the club to not only return to Ligue 1 in a short period of time after their relegation in 2020 but to now sit within two points of OGC Nice who are eighth in the Championnat table.
“We are almost exclusively data driven in our processes,” explained Comolli. “Whether that is recruiting a player, a coach, analyzing opponents, or looking at our own team and players. RedBird are shareholders and owners of an analytics company Zelus in the U.S. which we are lucky to have access to via what we call RedBird FC. On pretty much a daily basis Zelus make data available to us through their analysts which enables us to identify deficiencies in the market but also to get access to the type of player that would have previously been unthinkable.
“The business we have been doing over the past three year has helped us to overperform with regards to expenditure and we are currently 16th or 17th in terms of budget yet only a couple of points away from seventh in the table. This allows us to be very innovative in our approach but also very disciplined in how we approach our use of it as well.”
Toulouse are being hailed as something of a “model modern club” in France not only in the way that they approach their transfer business but also in some of their personnel decisions. They are the first professional club in the country to have female representation in their recruitment department while they have also carved out a reputation for minimizing soft tissue injuries which aids an impressive player availability record.
“We do not have time to look at or listen to what people are saying about us — good or bad,” Comolli told House of Champions exclusively. “We go our way and do what we think is right. Obviously, if people are speaking positively about us and RedBird Capital Partners, then that is great. There is so much potential for where we think we can take the club in the next three to four years that we do not really look at the actual — we keep looking forward. We try to define ourselves as a very different club and part of our difference comes from being innovative.
“With Julia, she did not get the job because she is female. She got the job because she is extremely good at what she does, she knows soccer very well, she is bright and we feel that she is potentially a leader of tomorrow for this club. Our approach is looking at how we can develop our non-playing staff, be innovative, and get an edge or a competitive advantage. When you have less money, you have to be more astute. If we were to do the same things as other clubs with fewer resources, that would be a car crash in the making. We are constantly looking for a competitive advantage in all that we do.
“For the last three years, we have had the highest availability rate per game alongside Monaco. We have an extremely low number of soft tissue injuries so our availability rate sits at around 94%. Some people thought it was luck the first year, not so much the second, and now they know it is definitely not luck in the third. We must be doing something right and the fact that we have a young squad helps as by definition young players get fewer injuries. That gives us this mindset of looking to improve and to innovate and I would say that we work more on an hourly basis than a daily one.”
Where Toulouse are now is in stark contrast with the club which RedBird acquired back in 2020 having dropped into Ligue 2 with a wretched record and having turned away many of its loyal fans. Comolli is particularly proud of having rebuilt that connection over the past three years.
“It became clear to me when I joined that we needed to reconnect the club with the community. There was a breakdown between the fans, the old stakeholders and the Violet community. The color purple is a strong part of our identity and that of the club and city. We were clear from day one about the need to reconnect with everyone from fans to community to sponsors and media — everyone is daily contact with the club and city.
“We have managed to do that and triple our revenues these past three years. Even in Ligue 2, we doubled our revenue compared with our previous year in Ligue 1. We went from roughly 7,000 ticket purchases per game to 23 or 24,000 this season and from 3,000-4,000 season ticket holders to around 13,500 now with a growth from five to 18% of female season ticket holders too. If there is one thing that we are truly proud of, it is this reconnection.”
Toulouse arrive in Paris looking to continue their excellent 2023 form which has seen them draw just once for 13 points from a possible 15 in Ligue 1 as well as two rounds of Coupe de France progress. Comolli is happy with the increased recognition that TFC are currently enjoying whether that is from potential recruits or pundits and relishing being back at the biggest venues against the biggest clubs.
“I am seeing a lot of good things but also some frustrating,” said the Frenchman. “Where we are in the table is obviously positive as is our style of play which is now identified around the world as we have players coming from South America or even the U.S. who know and like how we play which is positive. The frustration comes from not having been able to challenge some of the top six or seven clubs so far as we have only taken one point in those games. Our aim is to improve that over the second half of the season. The glass is half full, for sure, but at the same time we know that there is room for improvement. With 13 points from 15 in Ligue 1, even if I think we should have had 15 from 15 by beating Brest, we are happy where we are and to be scoring lots of goals.”
PSG at Parc des Princes on Saturday could be a perfect opportunity for Toulouse then with Christophe Galtier’s men having been beaten by RC Lens and Stade Rennais but also held by Stade de Reims of late while Troyes also impressed in the capital. Despite the glitz and glamor of Paris, the French champions away is just another day at the office for Comolli.
“To be perfectly honest, it is just another match for us,” he said. “We have brought Toulouse back to where the club belongs in Ligue 1 to play against these big clubs in big stadiums. Normality was TFC in Ligue 2 so we are very happy to be going to Paris on Saturday as we were to visit Marseille back in late December. We belong in this league and we will go there to be as ambitious as we can and to play our attacking style. We want to have zero regrets after each game — not only when we play in the big games against PSG or Marseille.”
