From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Sep 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.84, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.66, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isak Jansson, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
163% of the income goes out in wages at OGC Nice
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A masterclass from Elye Wahi
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sochaux will make the call about Zoumana Diallo this week. OGC Nice have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Elye Wahi finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. OGC Nice have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mohamed-Ali Cho
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match29 Aug 2026
Paris FC left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Elye Wahi leaves them behind him
Shots: 6. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 7, 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
A mark of 5.71 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 32. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
OGC Nice say no — this time
The offer from Stade Lavallois for Zoumana Diallo 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Elye Wahi gets it from the manager
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. OGC Nice will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.90 on the card, and the OGC Nice support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Elye Wahi leaves them behind him
Shots: 7. 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. RC Lens came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. OGC Nice have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
OGC Nice bring in an old head
Djibril Sidibé is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Melvin Bard commits to OGC Nice for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
RC Strasbourg are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. OGC Nice will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Melvin Bard knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OGC Nice, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sofiane Diop commits to OGC Nice for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Sofiane Diop
Still no offer on the table, and Sofiane Diop’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.