0‑3 against LOSC Lille, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
OGC Nice asked and RC Strasbourg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Amoura 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Brestois have kept their man, and OGC Nice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at OGC Nice until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Mohamed Amoura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Ponsot is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gauthier Hein in the middle of it, and Olympique Lyonnais unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at OGC Nice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Gouveia 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.
The offer from Olympique de Marseille for Yehvann Diouf was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marc-Aurel Koffi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and OGC Nice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elye Wahi provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
OGC Nice offered $8.0M; Monterrey said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
RC Lens paid $8.8M and OGC Nice took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and OGC Nice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mohamed Amoura 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandre Maillard has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 34030. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. OGC Nice will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RC Lens in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
$18.1M was the most the club would pay and Al-Hilal were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Standard Liege pay $7.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The offer from RC Lens for Tanguy Ndombele was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Raymond Clément has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thibault Charpentier has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and OGC Nice are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutYehvann Diouf knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nathan Ngoumou
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Kévin Malcuit
OGC Nice have gone to Al-Hilal with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The name of Hicham Boudaoui has come up in conversations OGC Nice were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
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.
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.