Lhe Aiglons want to take flight. Unhappy fifth tied with Stade Rennes (fourth) and three points from the podium, OGC Nice still won their place for the Europa League Conference at the end of an unspectacular 2021-2022 season far from any rest . Despite the departure of Christophe Galtier for PSG, the club has found its former coach Lucien Favre and has managed to strengthen its workforce. Will the “Gym” succeed in reaching a new milestone this season?
When he arrived at the head of the Riviera club in the summer of 2019, the British petrochemical group Ineos tipped OGC Nice into another dimension. The project was clear: “to make Nice a club that can arrive regularly at European level, and stay there” in the space of three to five years. Three seasons later, it is clear that the account is not there. If the “Gym” qualified for the Europa League in the first year, taking advantage of a season truncated by the Covid-19 epidemic, it then finished 9e in 2021 then 5e in 2022. Far from being won over by the club’s results, Jim Ratcliffe, its owner, wants to restore order in the house.
An eventful summer on the Côte d’Azur
After accepting the departure of Christophe Galtier, OGC Nice opened a new chapter by calling on a former member of the house, Lucien Favre (64), back in Nice after two years on the Borussia Dortmund bench and more one year without staff. The Swiss technician thus finds a club which he trained from 2016 to 2018, but now endowed with considerable means. In particular, he will be able to keep most of his group and should be able to rely on a young and talented collective to try to reach a European Cup as in the last exercise.
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If the leaders of OGC Nice have struggled to launch their summer transfer window, they have however considerably accelerated their recruitment at the dawn of the 2022-2023 season. After the young Rares Ilie (19 years old, Rapid Bucharest, 5 million euros) and Badredine Bouanani (17 years old, LOSC, free) or the final transfer of Marcin Bulka (22 years old, PSG, 2 million euros), four new heavy reinforcements have joined the ranks of the Riviera club. First there was the arrival of young French midfielder Alexis Beka Beka (21, Lokomotiv Moscow, 12 million euros), then the signing of Welsh international midfielder Aaron Ramsey (31, Juventus Turin, free) or again that of the young and very promising international central defender Italian hope Mattia Viti (20 years old, Empoli, 13 million euros). But the big blow achieved by the people of Nice is none other than the signing of Kasper Schmeichel (35 years old, Leicester, 1 million euros). The Danish international goalkeeper left the Premier League after spending eleven years there and winning the English title in 2016 to join the “Gym” and take over from Walter Benitez, who left free this summer.
Lucien Favre, winning return?
Back on the Côte d’Azur, the Vaudois coach raised many hopes, especially in the game – often considered purring under Christophe Galtier. Apostle of handsome, the experienced technician will have to reinvigorate the club’s offensive animation to find his way back to the C1 and meet the owner’s requirements. Jim Ratcliffe also explained the choice of the coach in a letter addressed to the supporters of the club: “He is an experienced coach, who has met with success in the Bundesliga, but also here in Nice. Everywhere, he aroused respect and admiration. We like his way of developing his teams and perfectly matches the vision we have at Ineos of the style of play we want for OGC Nice. Favre for his part set out his ambition: the podium. “Nice must, within two years, regularly finish in the top three and even more! »
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Confident in their ability to play the first part of the table – the Nice club have not finished outside the top 10 since the 2014-2015 season – Lucien Favre’s men still have a step to take to hope to make their place on the podium. Driven by a largely maintained and above all reinforced workforce, as well as a goalkeeper position which should be occupied by one of the best European goalkeepers (Kasper Schmeichel), the only thing left for the people of Nice and Lucien Favre, dean of the championship, is to maintain their solidity by revitalizing the offensive sector which, on paper, has enough to give cold sweats to the best defenses in Ligue 1.
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