Some interesting info on Toulouse today from the Guardian online.
The devil's wind blows through Midi Pyrénées. Swirling in from the south-east, l'Autan, also known as le vent du diable, can be warm or cool, strong or soft, sudden or sustained, but is usually a bamboozling blend of the lot - which is why its other name is le vent qui rend fou: the wind that turns you insane. It could be Toulouse's best chance of knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League. Don't scoff: in 1916, l'Autan derailed a train.
And in 1986, it did in Diego Maradona.
Or maybe it didn't. Either way, 21 years ago the best player who ever lived missed the decisive penalty in a shoot-out at Le Stadium to give Toulouse a famous
Uefa Cup first-round victory over Napoli, the greatest European night in the club's history. Few locals expect Elie Baup's team to surpass those heroics when they host Liverpool next week, but giddy hope got many out of bed at 7am last Saturday to begin queuing a full three hours before tickets went on sale for the forthcoming double-header: Liverpool next Wednesday and Lyon in the league on Saturday. But if fans are restless with excitement, Baup must be sleepless with worry. Because TFC have big problems going into both matches.
The euphoria that followed the club's sensational and controversial qualification for the Champions League has given way to fear that Toulouse are about to embarrass themselves. Over the summer, Baup and president Olivier Sadran, who took over six years ago after the club was demoted to the third tier of French football for financial irregularities, were at pains to insist Champions League qualification wouldn't go to the club's head; but the players don't appear to have been paying attention. Last Saturday they opened their league campaign with an abysmal 3-1 defeat at Valenciennes, prompting Patrick Boudreault of La Dépêche du Midi to howl "TFC showed absolutely nothing - not even pride. They were quite simply unworthy of the ambitions they're supposed to have for this season. They better come down off their little cloud quick - they're not owed anything, and won't be spared anything against Lyon, Liverpool or anyone else: that's the simple law of sport."
President Sadran didn't disagree. "This will be a very tough season if we continue to take ourselves for FC Barcelona," he railed. "If we neglect our customary virtues of commitment and solidarity, nothing will save us." Instead of a gentle day-after-a-match warm-down, Baup ordered his squad in on Sunday for intensive training. "Might as well, they can't have been tired after Saturday," he quipped.
The players' attitude will surely be corrected; but that won't cure the team's worst affliction: a sickly defence. Both regular centre-backs - Daniel Congré and captain Dominique Arribagé - are out injured. They left a huge void at Valenciennes, where new signing Jon Jönsson and never-good Mohamed Fofana were given the run-around by Steve Savidan and Johan Audel, allowing the latter to hit a hat-trick and double his career goals tally.
Mauro Cetto, a summer signing from relegated Nantes, missed the Valenciennes game through suspension and will undoubtedly start against Lyon but so clueless were Fofana and Jönsson that Baup, having failed to lure Johan Djourou from Arsenal, is pondering pairing Cetto either with new left-back Hérita Ilunga or with Nicolas Dieuze, who was once an ineffectual striker but has since been converted into a tolerable holding midfielder. Toulouse, then, are about to take on Lyon and Liverpool with a defence more patched up than a thief in a Nicorette factory.
If there's an upside to this defensive woe, it's that TFC will be compelled to attack. And they'll certainly be a threat. André-Pierre Gignac is a powerfully-built, richly-skilled 21-year-old who looked so dangerous in the first half of last season that Raymond Domenech publicly hinted at the unthinkable: calling up a Lorient player to the national team! Highly sought after in the summer, Gignac signed for Lille before Toulouse's even more lucrative offer convinced him to backtrack on that agreement, barge through a bureaucratic storm and head down south. Though they still play with just one up front away from home, Gignac's arrival almost certainly means Baup will play 4-4-2 at home - so he can pair the promising recruit with the team's outstanding star: Johan Elmander.
Elmander rejected Rangers to join Toulouse from Brondby last year but it was far from obvious he was going to succeed. He'd previously flopped at Feyenoord and president Sadran openly admitted he may not thrive in France, quipping "but at least his good looks will attract more girls to the ground". As it happened, the big blond's performances were even better than his appearance, and he's attracted something altogether less welcome - admiring glances from the giants of Europe, including Lyon and Barça.
At 26, Elmander's a late bloomer like Didier Drogba, but he has all the Ivorian's attributes - and more. With his power, pace and finesse, he leads the line superbly for Toulouse, but such is his intelligence and passing ability that he can also drop deep and serve overlapping team-mates such as the occasionally brilliant Fodé Mansaré and Paulo Cesar (which explains why he often played as a playmaker at Brondby, unselfishly feeding a front three). He completely destabilises defences, creating as many as he scores (11 goals and 11 assists last season).
A thigh injury forced Elmander off after just 26 minutes against Valenciennes but he's expected to be fit for the visit of Lyon and will almost certainly be unleashed on Liverpool. That's the good news for Toulouse. The bad news for them is that he this week turned down a new contract offer - but if the striker wants to convince one of the clubs who've been eyeing him up to finally pop the question, that could also be bad news for Liverpool. Particularly for Daniel Agger who, having been outclassed when Elmander scored two for Sweden against Denmark last June, may reluctantly agree with Sadran's suggestion that the new star of Swedish football is worth "much more than €25m (£16.7m)". If l'Autan doesn't drive the Dane crazy next week, Elmander just might.
The Official Liverpool thread 2007/08
Gerrard
