On August 26, 2019, OGC Nice went under the British flag and was officially bought by INEOS, which is headed by Britain's richest man, billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. At that time, Nice fans had stars in their eyes and believed that the best for the Riviera club was yet to come. Four years later, how can we evaluate this collaboration between a historic French football club and a company that has been active in the world of sports for several years?
Instability at the coaching level
Since INEOS took over four years ago, OGC Nice has already had six different coaches: Patrick Vieira, Adrian Ursea, Christophe Galtier, Lucien Favre, Didier Digard and Francesco Farioli, the latter arriving at the start of July to start a new cycle with the Aiglons. By comparison, between the arrival of Jean-Pierre River as president in 2011 and the long-awaited arrival of the petrochemical company in 2019, the Gym had only four coaches in eight seasons. Therefore, it seems difficult to create a medium-term project with so many changes in such a short time.
Especially since Nice had their best seasons in recent times in 2015/16, Claude Puel's fourth and final year on the Riviera bench (4th with 3rd best attack in Ligue 1) and in 2016/2017 where Jim finished on the podium (3rd with 4th best offensive result in the championship) under Lucien Favre with the opportunity to compete in the European Cups during these two seasons. Since INEOS' inception, Nice has only finished twice in Europe, including once in 2020, a year that was not completed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The new coach of Eglon, the Italian Francesco Farioli (34 years old), who has no experience in this position, will have to find a solution to appease the owners of the club from Nice. Read why French football is being sold here - https://www.rtl.fr/sport/football/pourquoi-le-football-francais-est-il-a-vendre-7781821912.
Bad transfer windows in general
Apart from a lack of continuity at coaching level, the Gym have also suffered for several seasons from a lack of talent in the transfer market. Indeed, in the past four years no fewer than fifty players have landed on the Cote d'Azur either on loan, as part of a permanent purchase or as a free agent. The least we can say is that the decision-makers in Nice were not inspired, as apart from Hicham Boudaoui (€4m in 2019), Amin Guiri (€7m in 2020) and Jean- Claire Todibo (€8.5m in 2021), No recruit has been a real success since 2019 arrival Khefren Thuram was brought in by a management led by Gauthier Ganay and Gilles Grimandy a month before the INEOS takeover.
It must be said that before the arrival of sporting director Florent Gizolfi from Lens last October, INEOS had even suffered bitter failures such as Stanley Nsoki (bought for €12.5m in Paris in 2019) or even Robson Bambu (€8m in Paranaense). sprat. Last season, around ten players arrived at Nice without any direct consultation with Lucien Favre, who returned to the club with the idea of bringing back to Nice the beautiful game that had disappeared since the departure of the Swiss technician in 2018. didn't really know who was in charge in terms of the transfer window (Ratcliffe, Brailsford, River?) and the dominant impression of the club from the outside looking in was that each of the components of the organizational chart made their own choices.
Verified results
Because of what was just mentioned, it is difficult for Nice to string together quality seasons. Le Gym has established itself in several seasons as an irregular and, above all, unpredictable team, capable of creating problems for the leaders of the championship (victories in Monaco, Marseille, Lancia, then over Rennes, Lille and Lyon from January 2023 in Ligue 1), until to collapse against teams that were within its borders (defeats in Brest, against Clermont and in Strasbourg during the same period). If regular injuries to certain elements (Atal, Claude-Maurice) have actually not helped OGC Nice for several seasons, the observation of checkered performances seems to repeat itself year after year, which deeply annoys the fans.
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However, INEOS' results could have been better if Nice had not missed the French Cup final against Nantes in 2022 (0-1) and if Didier Diehard's men had not played with fear in their stomachs in the Conference League. quarter-final against FC Basel last April (2-2, 1-2), where Nice lost, leading for most of the second leg. However, Nice have been unable to step onto the Ligue 1 podium since 2017 (that is, before the arrival of INEOS) and despite the latter presiding over an elite fifth budget, the investments made in recent years have rarely been effective. brought added value to the team. As such, many of the players who arrived only stayed for a short time.