Marked for Robert Gauthier
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Aug 2030
The run at home goes on for OGC Nice
16 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match31 Aug 2030
Nobody wants to play OGC Nice right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Moïse Bombito: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OGC Nice have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Sep 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OGC Nice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Sep 2030
“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.
Market2 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Ethan Degny
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ethan Degny will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OGC Nice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Mohamed-Ali Cho 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Aug 2030
OGC Nice cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market26 Aug 2030
Tom Louchet has one foot out of the door
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.
Market26 Aug 2030
Ishaq Zantour hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OGC Nice can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Aug 2030
Nimes 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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sofiane Diop 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.
Match24 Aug 2030
OGC Nice are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 62. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Aug 2030
The run at home goes on for OGC Nice
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Aug 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OGC Nice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Aug 2030
Nobody wants to play OGC Nice right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market19 Aug 2030
Florian Miguel has one foot out of the door
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.
Market19 Aug 2030
Tours 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Jonathan Clauss 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 Aug 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Brad Mantsounga is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Aug 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Aug 2030
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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Enguerrand Bouard is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sofiane Diop 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
Abu Francis told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Abu Francis has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at OGC Nice.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Aug 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Aug 2030
195 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and OGC Nice know what they have.
Market5 Aug 2030
Tin Kulenović hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OGC Nice can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Jonathan Clauss 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
A conversation is coming this week. OGC Nice will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OGC Nice is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 Jul 2030
Matys Youst hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OGC Nice can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jul 2030
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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sofiane Diop 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matteo Falasca and OGC Nice agree another 3 years.