In an interview, carried out shortly after the announcement of his departure from Lille, on May 25, Christophe Galtier had mentioned by name: Lyon, Naples and Nice as so many possible destinations. OL and the 5th in Serie A having now filled their bench with Peter Bosz and Luciano Spalletti, Nice remains alone on the track, except to consider the existence of a 4th way abroad. In the entourage of the champion coach of France, we also mischievously maintained the mystery on this last point. According to our information, Nice will nevertheless welcome him.
A three-year contract awaits him on the Côte d’Azur where an ambitious project, embodied by the Briton Jim Ratcliffe, the wealthy boss of Ineos, is offered to him. Between the two parties, the operation launched several weeks ago, seems complete. But first, it is up to Nice to agree with Lille on the amount of financial compensation linked to the last year of the contract in the North of Galtier. And this is where the shoe pinches clearly.
Financially bloodless, Lille is logically obliged to rethink its sports project with a new technician (Favre, Ranieri and Vieira are mentioned) and has no intention of giving a gift to its Nice counterpart. A registered letter was even sent, a few days ago, to OGC Nice to find out its intentions.
Recently questioned on this delicate subject, the president of the Mastiffs, Olivier Létang, whose relations with Julien Fournier, the director of Riviera football, are not good, was explicit, on June 1, on RMC Sport. “Today, and barring any changes, our coach under contract is Christophe Galtier, he reaffirmed. I hear about advanced contacts with Nice, who never contacted us (Editor’s note: unlike Lyon which was closer to Losc). I trust the leaders of Nice, who are part of the board of directors of the LFP, to respect the texts. “
An agreement around 3 million euros?
Info or intox ? Anyway, he intends to protect the rights of his club in the negotiations. If he respects the decision of Galtier to give another direction to his career, the former sports director of PSG wishes “to find the right agreement in what would constitute a major transfer of this summer transfer window”. According to a person close to the file, Lille would claim close to 5 million euros to release his coach, but a common ground could intervene around 2.5 or 3 million euros. In this game of lying poker a favorable outcome is at best envisioned next week. In Nice, we continue to wrap ourselves behind a facade of caution regarding the case of the future coach.
In private, however, the tongues are loosened. Some players’ agents contacted have received assurances that Galtier will be in place as of June 25, the date of resumption of training. On the other hand, the rumor reporting the concomitant arrival of Luis Campos, the former architect of Lille recruitment, is unfounded. The Portuguese, returned to live in Monaco, is coveted by Real Madrid. According to his inner circle, he is in the process of thinking after having recently received another enticing offer from another big European club.
After an interesting 2020 summer transfer window, but too generously giving pride of place to juvenile elements, Nice will change its mind. The reinforcement of more experienced boys is now privileged in order to avoid the same course stamped with the seal of inconstancy and to compete for European places. Loïc Rémy, with whom Galtier worked at Losc, could, according to L’Equipe, be part of this overhaul of the workforce. Galtier would be accompanied by his loyal assistant Thierry Oleksiak, a former OGCN player (1986 to 1989), as well as the Portuguese Jorge Maciel, his other right-hand man, and a physical trainer.
His salary will be comfortably revised upwards (he earned 180,000 euros gross in Lille and around 300,000 in Nice), even if the financial aspect was not the determining criterion in his eyes. He could, in fact, have received an otherwise substantial treatment by favoring a more exotic destination. But at 54 years old, the sporting challenge remains his main driving force.
