At the dawn of a season that will begin this Friday against Lille in the opening of the first day of Ligue 1, the Gym proudly displays its future ambitions.
Ninth in the championship last season, the Gym’s course left a bitter taste for many supporters. Used to European competitions for a few seasons now (four qualifications in the last seven years), the people of Nice will have to do without. For now, Francesco Farioli’s squad will have all the time to focus on the national elite by establishing its new leaders and developing its young players, in time to regain a comfortable position.
Indeed, this position, which seems to be intermediate, is hard to discern. INEOS (the group that owns OGC Nice) has clearly indicated that the club’s finances have been tightened. In other words, they’re tightening the belt. A real headache for the Gym’s sports management led by Florent Ghisolfi. With only two recruits registered on the transfer market, the Aiglons’ transfer window appears modest for a team aiming for Europe.
“The club remains ambitious, and we have everything we need to work well”
Jean-Pierre Rivère, Club President
In a press conference last July 28th, Jean-Pierre Rivère did not hide that INEOS’s initial project to compete with PSG by playing the Champions League each year was to be forgotten. But not everything should be discarded. The club is indeed taking a new direction, in line with its means and entirely assumed. Present at his side, Florent Ghisolfi sought to reassure the club’s fans: “There will be seven places for European competitions in Ligue 1 this season. The goal is to be in Europe and to be there every season. We’ve had a slight budget reduction, but we still have the means to do something good by working smartly. “
This perspective is widely shared by the players. Like Morgan Sanson and Jérémie Boga, recently arrived in Nice and attracted to the project. The same sentiment was expressed by captain Dante in today’s press conference: “We feel that there is a plan, that things are being put in place. Today, things are more organized, we know who is who, who will do what, and where we want to go. It’s very important to start a season this way. We must do better than last year. We need to secure European places. “
Slowly but surely
While the transfer window for Nice may seem modest so far, we must not forget the arrivals of the new sports director and coach, Florent Ghisolfi and Francesco Farioli, respectively. The former comes directly from Lens and enjoys a good reputation following his work in the club of Pas-de-Calais. As for the latter, he arrives from Alanyaspor in Turkey, endowed with a strong vision of the game and a well-defined identity. The main change this transfer window may well be this one.
Moreover, most of the key players are still present, and the squad’s needs do not appear alarming, even if major European clubs are knocking on the door for certain players… With Sanson and Boga as a bonus, Nice’s eleven now includes an experienced player in his prime in the midfield and a quick, technically skillful game-changer in attack. Ghisolfi is also tracking a goalkeeper, a central defender, a left-back, and a right winger to add more depth to the team. It is safe to say that the twenty million spent on acquiring Jérémie Boga certainly reduce the wiggle room, but recent sales of Kasper Dolberg and Calvin Stengs rebalance the financial envelope.
That’s it, the championship resumes! The Gym can be seen this Friday, August 11th, starting at 9 PM at the Allianz Riviera to face LOSC.
