Marked for Andria Svanidze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Mar 2029
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OGC Nice will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A season average of 7.72 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market5 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OGC Nice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Isak Jansson and OGC Nice agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match3 Mar 2029
4 matches without a win for OGC Nice
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around OGC Nice are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Hicham Boudaoui at his very best
Marked 8.90. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OGC Nice.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Feb 2029
Allan Saint-Maximin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A move Mikael Ugland would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mikael Ugland is living that version at OGC Nice, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssouf Ndayishimiye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Feb 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Yehvann Diouf knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match17 Feb 2029
0‑2 to Paris Saint-Germain, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch19 Feb 2029
“I did not go to Zaragoza to sit and watch. I want to come back to OGC Nice and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
The one thing Terem Moffi could not do
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Mattia Viti leaves them behind him
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Jan 2029
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 3‑2, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Squad22 Jan 2029
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match20 Jan 2029
Terem Moffi wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Terem Moffi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Monaco went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market22 Jan 2029
Red Star come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and OGC Nice did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them and it is a story a city tells for a decade. OGC Nice have their man.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A move Luis Chacón would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Chacón is living that version at OGC Nice, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mohamed-Ali Cho commits to OGC Nice for another 4 years.
Market22 Jan 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Le Havre AC will make the call about Otis Caporusso this week. OGC Nice have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Viktor Tsygankov takes the afternoon — 9.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Viktor Tsygankov provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Yussif Saidu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Ninety minutes of Adrián Liso at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zaragoza.
Match16 Dec 2028
Viktor Tsygankov among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Viktor Tsygankov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zaragoza and Málaga.
Match16 Dec 2028
Three points for Zaragoza, 4‑2 the final word against Málaga in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Viktor Tsygankov
7 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Dec 2028
4‑1, and Terem Moffi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything OGC Nice tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OGC Nice may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Sofiane Diop
9 goals and a season average of 7.68 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Allan Saint-Maximin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Sofiane Diop falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match9 Dec 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation OGC Nice did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Marked 9.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OGC Nice.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Nov 2028
Sofiane Diop in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OGC Nice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssouf Ndayishimiye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
A performance of 9.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match11 Nov 2028
A 2‑1 win over Le Havre AC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Allan Saint-Maximin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.71. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 8.64 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 8.62 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Sofiane Diop
3 goals and a season average of 7.40 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Loan watch13 Nov 2028
“I did not go to Zaragoza to sit and watch. I want to come back to OGC Nice and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Defensive actions: 48, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match8 Nov 2028
Cup progress for Zaragoza
A 2‑0 win over Almería, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match13 Nov 2028
Zaragoza up to position 2
30 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match11 Nov 2028
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sydney Osazuwa decided nobody was going anywhere. Córdoba had no time left to answer.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
No sign of nerves from Andria Svanidze at 19 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andria Svanidze did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad13 Nov 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market13 Nov 2028
Adrián Liso wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Zaragoza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Portu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Róber falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Oct 2028
Allan Saint-Maximin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Sofiane Diop falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.90, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A season average of 7.32 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Loan watch16 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Zaragoza to sit and watch. I want to come back to OGC Nice and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match14 Oct 2028
It needed Terem Moffi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against RC Strasbourg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Sep 2028
A 2-goal lead gone for OGC Nice
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. FC Nantes kept coming because nothing stopped them, and OGC Nice will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Allan Saint-Maximin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Sofiane Diop falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Marked 9.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Terem Moffi at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OGC Nice.
Loan watch18 Sep 2028
“I watch every OGC Nice game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zaragoza runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A smaller club would suit Melvin Bard now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether OGC Nice can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Match16 Sep 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jul 2028
Lautaro Belleggia damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Josh Landers is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Portu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Róber falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market17 Jul 2028
The Yussif Saidu talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zaragoza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market17 Jul 2028
A season-long audition: Bristol City still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Zaragoza's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Moustapha Mbow
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OGC Nice lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OGC Nice may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kojo Peprah Oppong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OGC Nice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Sofiane Diop was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Victor Orakpo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market10 Jul 2028
The name of Andria Svanidze has come up in conversations OGC Nice were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Moustapha Mbow damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad15 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OGC Nice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 May 2028
Sofiane Diop was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market1 May 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Loan watch1 May 2028
“I watch every OGC Nice game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS Nancy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad1 May 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Ezequiel Ávila out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique Lyonnais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Lyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Olympique Lyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tanner Tessmann is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match19 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A mark of 5.65 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Market21 Feb 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moussa Niakhaté signs something — a contract at Olympique Lyonnais or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
Ishaq Zantour damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and Moïse Bombito takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moïse Bombito provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad8 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OGC Nice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Sofiane Diop
7 goals and a season average of 7.58 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match6 Nov 2027
A 2‑1 win over Olympique de Marseille, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Sofiane Diop at his very best
Marked 8.78. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OGC Nice.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I watch every OGC Nice game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Olympique Lyonnais runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Nov 2027
Paul Akouokou damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match7 Nov 2027
3‑1 against Suduva, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Malick Fofana was at the centre of the description.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Andria Svanidze at 18 — 8.33
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andria Svanidze did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Lyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ernest Nuamah and Olympique Lyonnais agree another 4 years.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A performance of 9.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A performance of 9.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezequiel Ávila
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique Lyonnais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Aug 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Julien Duranville, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A move Andria Svanidze would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andria Svanidze is living that version at Olympique Lyonnais, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Julien Duranville is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Julien Duranville has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Ernest Nuamah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.75. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“I watch every Olympique Lyonnais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lavallois runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.