It is three years since Ineos bought Nice for about €100 million (£88 million) and, as for most owners, the baptism has been anything but straightforward. Despite best intentions, there has been no revolution on the riviera for the French club.
Manchester-born entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe and his company built on petrochemicals have entered the turbulent world of supporter voices, football agents and the revolving doors for players, managers and sporting directors. Nice did experience the thrill of reaching the French Cup final last season but also the deflation of losing it to shock winners Nantes.
However, Ratcliffe and Ineos aren’t in the Cote d’Azur for occasional cup final appearances, they have the desire to take Nice back into the Champions League and challenge Paris Saint-Germain for the Ligue 1 title. So far it has been a challenging experience.
There have been schisms and a recent change of tact too. Julien Fournier, the influential director of football who had effectively run the club for a decade, and Christophe Galtier, the coach who won the title with Lille in 2021 before moving to Nice last summer, failed to see eye to eye over the transfer policy last term and both men ended up departing this summer, Galtier for PSG.
Such a turnover of key personnel led to the owners deciding to reboot their project and become more involved in the daily running of one of French football’s biggest clubs. The addressing of deeper footballing and structural issues has seen Sir Dave Brailsford, Ineos’ sporting director and a leading figure in the cycling world, based at the training ground and leading Nice’s off-the-field operations.
Brailsford was part of the team who decided on this summer’s transfers. But so far any sense of improvement has been hard to ascertain. In fact, the locals are quickly turning on their team. Nice have only won two of their opening nine league games and lost five of them. In the Europa Conference League they have two draws to their name.
Manager Lucien Favre returned for a second spell in charge in the summer, after leading the club to a title challenge in 2017, and his appointment was popular and even something of a coup. But the past few months have seen Favre struggle to get a tune out of his talented but one-dimensional squad. A possible exit has been muted with Mauricio Pochettino linked in certain quarters.
Transfer business has come under scrutiny
Last season Nice had the meanest defence in Ligue 1, conceding just 36 goals in 38 games, but they were regularly stumped by weaker sides with well-organised defences. They snatched fifth last season having finished ninth the previous campaign. This term they have already conceded 11 in nine matches and scored only six. There is discontent amongst supporters and frustrations with the raft of players that have arrived, mostly from England.
The club brought in Kasper Schmeichel from Leicester City,, Nicolas Pepe from Arsenal, Joe Bryan from Fulham, Bech Sorensen from Brentford, as well as adding Ross Barkley after Chelsea cancelled his contract, and former Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey, who was released from Juventus.
The majority were either free transfers or loan deals but none have hit the ground running. Even Schmeichel, who has been an impressive presence in the Premier League for the past decade, was benched against Anger before the international break after a handful of unsure displays.
Favre, whose position will come under further scrutiny should Nice fail to defeat mid-table Troyes at home on Sunday, has also made his thoughts known about the club’s summer business. Exactly how many of the 12 summer signings Favre actually wants at the club is uncertain.
A more joined-up approach is expected to take shape when a new chief executive arrives and a permanent director of football is installed to remove the task from Brailsford. An overhaul of the training complex is also planned with the aim to instil a high-class performance culture into a club with just one major honour, the French cup, since their glory decade. That was in the 1950s when they claimed four French league titles.
However, the here and now requires more short-term solutions. Nice are dangerously close to emulating Marseille’s much mocked “Champions Project”, which culminated in the club signing washed-up big-name players on high wages without a proper sporting plan. Extracting more from his remoulded squad is the primary task for Favre.
There are aspects of the squad which do bode well for Nice. Jean-Clair Todibo is one of the league’s leading young defenders, striker Gaetan Laborde has arrived from Rennes, for whom he scored 20 goals last season, to partner Andy Delort who he played with at Montpellier, and Sofiane Diop was Monaco’s standout striker before moving along the coast this summer.
Positive signs emerged last weekend despite a late lapse allowing Kylian Mbappe to clinch a 2-1 win for Galtier’s PSG at Parc des Princes. Laborde scored his first goal for the club with Nice’s only attempt on target. “A frustrating evening” read Nice-Matin’s headline.
Nevertheless, the fractious atmosphere persists and only positive results and performances will improve sentiments on the riviera. Ratcliffe has recently announced his long-held intention to one day purchase Manchester United, his boyhood club, but what a possible deal would mean for Nice and Swiss outfit Lausanne — the other club Ineos own — remains uncertain.
For now, at least, Ratcliffe and his team are committed to ensuring their project at Nice doesn’t fizzle out. Ambitions are noted and aims are high, but rather than revolution any progress will likely come via small steps. Improvements from their new-buys will be demanded. Even as autumn sets in, the heat will only rise.