It is easy to imagine that Damien Comolli sees football like a game of chess. The Toulouse chairman is always thinking, plotting and pre-empting: Ask him a question, and his answer will often have a nod to what you're going to ask next. For example, one Tuesday afternoon in October, on a Zoom call from behind the glass desk in his office at Toulouse -- a rugby-loving city in southern France -- he is describing how various sporting executives called upon his help in the eight years he was away from the game.
He must always be a step ahead, and that mindset has made him one of the most forward-thinking executives in European football. For the past two decades, Comolli has been something of a revolutionary, but without the trophy-laden success or applause one might expect.
A decade ago, he served as a sporting director at Tottenham and then Liverpool , and there is an argument to say that his warm embrace for data analytics laid the groundwork for what allowed the two clubs to be successful under Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp, respectively. However, Comolli was not rewarded: He was sacked at each club before his plans began to bear fruit.
In his current role at Toulouse, though, he does not have that problem. He is, essentially, his own boss. They settled on Toulouse and then put him in sole charge of running it, with his data-led approach as their guiding star. Since then, they have backed him every inch. Comolli and his team have twice sacked managers despite a string of seemingly successful seasons, because their algorithm showed that they had underperformed and weren't quite a success at all. It includes last summer, when the club let go of its head coach, Philippe Montanier, despite leading them to the first trophy in its year history and a rare place in the Europa League.
Toulouse finished just three points behind 11th-placed Stade de Reims. We did it based on data. It was not acceptable. I hate being mediocre, I just can't stand mediocrity, I just can't. When I know there is an area in the club which is mediocre, it just drives me nuts. But still, for Comolli, Toulouse represents somewhat of a haven.
