Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice (OGC Nice)

But then you've got Cagliari also playing Inter later tonight at 6.45. And Lazio and Genoa also play.

At the very same time, within the French League, you've got Paris FC defeating OG Nice by three goals to nil.

That was a really good win there by Paris FC.

And Stade Rennais and Le Mans also are currently playing 60 minutes, and it's 2-2 at the moment.

He is gonna have to go back under the knife to have surgery again on this tibia injury that he suffered last year.

And he had some interesting comments to say to the, uh, website of, uh, OGC Nice in France as to what happened with his leg and the decision-making that came to him participating at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Moises Gambeto, for those of you who are, uh, don't speak, uh, a lot of French there, saying, uh, "I had a conversation with the manager in May, said how much, uh, he needed me.

And, uh, you know, it was a battle between my heart and my body to see if I could get there, play in front of my fr- family, my friends, my country." Um, let's not pretend here.

Issa Nissa.

This is Le Classique, and on today's Tour de France, we're previewing OGC Nice.

welcome everybody to le classique where we are continuing our tour de france where we preview every single team in liga this season and after focusing on the north of france bapo today we're going down south to nice that had a bit of a disastrous campaign last year so having previously managed to get into the top four with a great kind of managerial performance from Francaise and a good performance from the whole side.

It's fair to say that last season didn't exactly go to plan for OGC Nice.

Totally.

Apocalyptic is the way I would have maybe described it.

And I think we'll remember the comments of Jim Ratcliffe, kind of quite disparaging about the level of Liga, although to be fair, you know, what does this man really know about the level of football, considering he never played it.

It's hard, I think, to think about Nice today without thinking about Ineos, particularly when you think about it from the perspective of maybe, you know, a British listener or a listener from the kind of more international market.

And we'll talk a, a bit about Stoke.

I just wanted to mention, uh, Mendy and, uh, sorry, no, Ajayi and Egan, and I'll be, I'll be honest, sort of in the build-up and, and, uh, having watched them a- against Neets, I'm thinking, "Can he go with those two i- in the opening game of the Premier League?" And they were both absolutely s- superb.

They were both fantastic.

Ajayi would prob- I, I don't know which one I'd give my man of the match to.

Yeah.

And let's just hope that their performance in Europe isn't as terrible as OGC Nice's last season, I think.

It

felt like they had thrown their Europa League campaign down the toilet almost from the moment it started, right? Did they finish bottom, I think, of the whole table of the Europa League? Anyway, they weren't far off.

And I think that's a common thread that we've seen for managers who have moved to different clubs, from clubs in Ligue 1, from clubs in France, to different clubs, the likes of Alexandre Dujeu, Olivier Pantalone.

They've done good work at Angers and Lorient, respectively, and they've kind of taken a very smart step up at least sideways, if not up, at the likes of Nice and...

Sorry, I'm looking at my list.

Where's Alexandre Dujegon and Lorient? So I think for me, it's a very healthy change throughout and with very interesting...

I think for the English-speaking contingent in and around the league, I think that's going to make it more accessible, more of something that people want to keep an eye on week in, week out.

I think Felipe Luis at Monaco is something I'm really excited going to be keeping a close eye on as well this coming campaign.

And I think as well, just to sort of echo some of Baptiste's thoughts, I think Pantalone at Nice is something that is going to be fascinating just because of the pure scenario.

I think everybody's interested in the Genesio situation with Marseille given the circumstances surrounding the club and then you've got Oliveira as well at Strasbourg and Strasbourg seem to be sort of tightening the belt a little bit most likely because they're competing or they they've been competing in Europe so you've now got this kind of timeline that they're on in terms of their finances if and when they return to European competition as well And I think the one that's kind of flying under the radar a little bit is Jens Bertel Escu at Toulouse, somebody who has made a reputation for himself for playing attractive football, but on a fairly limited budget.

They did all right in July with wins against Konyaspor and Rizespor, 3-0 and 2-1 respectively.

But in August, a 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa, a 2-0 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, and a draw with OGC Nice.

Their star man has been Ollie McBurnie, obvious pickup for you if you're in need of a striker.

The only one really from Hull that I would go anywhere near.