From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against RC Lens, and it could have been more.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OGC Nice people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Market24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Sofiane Diop was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Salis Abdul Samed had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tiago Gouveia 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.
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.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OGC Nice have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Clauss and OGC Nice agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at OGC Nice
Mohamed Amoura and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and OGC Nice know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and OGC Nice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
10 seasons of Dante
595 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and OGC Nice know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Axel Witsel retires from international football
“140 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 37 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at OGC Nice.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
In brief
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The dugout
Jonathan Clauss asks for a word with the manager
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The dugout
The manager comes out for Dante