“Toulouse, promoted on paper, but a stronghold of French football”
Before the reception of Strasbourg at the Stadium this Sunday (15, First video), the writing of the site LesViolets.Com a questioned Thomasmember of the Strasbourg supporters’ site Au Coeur du RCS.
Strasbourg is having a difficult start to the season, with only one small victory against Angers on October 9. Are you afraid of having to fight for maintenance?
“It’s not really a fear, it’s rather quite obvious at the moment. We left to play maintenance. That said, I think it can move very quickly, since the positions in the standings are very tight. So far, I’m not worried. I will be if we are behind on the soft stomach at the end of the championship. For the moment, we are only four points from 10th place. I think that at some point, we will find some of the substance that made us have a very good season last year. Everything did not evaporate during a transfer window, especially since we did not lose a lot of elements, except our pistons. And if we had to play the maintenance, I wouldn’t be afraid, because I think we have enough experience to analyze this type of situation in the best conditions.“
After 6th place last year, didn’t the transfer window lack a bit of ambition?
“On paper, indeed, in view of the sixth place obtained last season, we can think that we lacked ambition and that we were not reinforced. We only replaced the players who left, namely Guilbert on the right and Caci on the left replaced by Dagba and Pierre-Gabriel on the right, and by Delaine on the left. Very clearly, the performance of these two players is not at the level of our two pistons of last season. What should be emphasized about this transfer window is that we have re-signed players who are executives, such as goalkeeper Mats Sels, or Prcic. It is also a part of the transfer window that has not been highlighted. I wouldn’t talk about lacking ambition, because when you want to have ambition, you have to have money, and we don’t have it. We made do with what we had. The Djiku affair also spoiled the transfer window a bit. He was to go to Hoffenheim and bring about 7 million euros into the coffers. I think this sum was intended for the purchase of other players.“
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More broadly, what is the long-term project at Racing?
“Long term, I can’t say. In the short and medium term, work is supposed to start shortly, at the beginning of 2023, but we don’t really have any visibility. The objective over two years is to carry out this work, modernize the stadium and obviously stay in Ligue 1 to be able to take advantage of this new Meinau. Obviously, the basic supporter thinks that, since we are going to have a new stadium, we are going to have a new team. The modernization of the stadium is necessary, but that is not why we are going to modernize the team or revolutionize it. A lot of players will reach the end of their contract this season, it’s a big question for a lot of supporters. There will be a major construction site by summer 2023.“
Julien Stéphan in the image of a fairly ambitious coach in the game. Is it still the case this year?
“We always come back to this past season, which is a kind of example but which, this year, is a bit like a pebble in the shoe. Everything that happens this year is seen through the prism of last season. Everything that goes wrong this year goes well last year. That raises a lot of questions. I don’t question the work of Julien Stéphan, quite the contrary. Things will eventually turn around. For sure he has less ambition in the game than he had last year. This can be explained by the very high quality of the pistons we had, which brought a lot of danger and offensive solutions. There, we stayed in this 3-5-2 system but the pistons have less impact and are less efficient. We hope that some players will find their form, like Sanjin Prcic. He was much sought after, found breaches, lit up the game in his class. There, he is looking for himself. In any case, I think Julien Stéphan is not called into question and I don’t think he ends up waltzing.“
How do you see the TFC this season?
“I saw two or three games and I found it quite daring in the game, it was very forward. It’s a bit cliché, but we feel the carelessness of the promoted. Afterwards, he is promoted on paper, but Toulouse is a stronghold of French football, which I am very happy to see again in Ligue 1. A team like that, a club like that, a city like that have nothing to do in Ligue 2. I know you have good young people. Van den Boomen, of course, is very interesting. I haven’t seen much from Toulouse, but it looks pretty solid to me and it should hold and continue this year.“
A prediction for Sunday’s game? And for the classification of the two clubs?
“I think we’re going to draw. I see a very open game. Toulouse is used to scoring quite a bit at home. We, on a relatively friable defense but our attackers plant goals. I would say 2-2. As for the ranking, if we finish 12th this year, that will suit me very well. I wish TFC to finish off the cart.“