A catastrophic season is set to end with a humiliating drop into Ligue 2 and a controversial new owner in Chien Lee
By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French
Football News
Another week, another defeat for Toulouse in a relegation six-pointer against Dijon. Despite missing nearly an entire first team of players through injury and suspension, and having equalised after the hosts had taken the lead through Hamza Mendyl, Les Violets once again tasted defeat, extending their winless run to 18 matches in the league. Now 17 points behind Dijon, and 14 adrift of even the relegation play-off spot, one of France’s top-flight mainstays over the last decade are now all but certain to taste life in the second division, a relegation the likes of which Ligue 1 hasn’t seen since that of Monaco a decade ago.
There are problems at the back, with goalkeeper Baptiste Reynet having been controversially dropped for Aston Villa loanee Lovre Kalinic, signed in January. Gen Shoji has recently departed for
Japan after an injury-blighted year in
France, the player having fallen out with Denis Zanko, the coach installed after Antoine Kombouaré was sacked. In midfield, Ibrahim Sangaré is playing far below the level he displayed in previous seasons, and William Vainqueur, who had seemed a canny buy in the summer, looks a shell of the player who had been such a reliable presence for Marseille three years ago.