There you go, it’s official. “The collaboration between the Toulouse Football Club and Philippe Montanier is coming to an end”, announced this Wednesday in a press release the recent winner of the Coupe de France. In addition to this first trophy for the club since 1957, the 58-year-old coach, in office since 2021, also allowed the TFC to go back to Ligue 1 and ensure a quiet maintenance for a promoted, at the end of a terrible four-run season.
But that was obviously not enough for its leaders, who dismissed Montanier one year from the end of his contract to replace him with his deputy, the Spaniard Carles Martinez Novell.
President Damien Comolli had sown doubt during his press conference on June 6, evoking “joy and frustration” when taking stock of the season. “We underperform by only finishing 13th, had launched the data specialist. We were aiming for 11th place minimum. »
A Catalan to replace him
In the aftermath, Les Violets website, very well informed about the TFC, had announced that the coach, whose relations with certain leaders were complicated, was going to leave. It is now acquired. Toulouse, qualified in principle for the Europa League, finds itself with a huge project, with the end of the executive contract (Maxime Dupé, Brecht Dejaegere, Stijn Spierings, Branco van den Boomen) and the Englishman Rhys Healey, top scorer in the club in L2 (20 achievements) before spending most of the past season in the infirmary. The club has so far announced the arrival of two young players: 22-year-old Spanish midfielder Cesar Gélabert (CD Mirandès, Spanish L2) and 20-year-old Dutch winger Ibrahim Cissoko (Nec Nijmegen).
The coaching position was therefore entrusted to Martinez Novell. Arrived in December as Montanier’s assistant, after Mickaël Debève was sidelined, the 39-year-old Catalan passed in particular by the training center of Barça also officiated in parallel as “responsible for the methodology of the professional team”.