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ne campaign, four seasons. At the time of the season when we review the past year. Pierre Lees-Melou accepted to look back on the 10 months of competition in nature’s order. Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring: the former Dijonnais retraces the steps of his first year with Nice with total honesty.  

Summer: “One of the best memories” 

You arrived at the Gym at the start of the window. What was your first reaction? 

I came from Dijon, a real family club where everyone gets on well and where there weren’t really any big surprises. I arrived into a dressing room, where there were lots of stars. So I asked questions of myself, which is normal, but straight away, everyone came to speak to me and in the end I had a nice welcome. I was also lucky to know Arnaud (Souquet), which helped my settling in. But I didn’t expect it to go like that...

Why? 

With all the names that there are, you say to yourself, that surely there can’t be such a brilliant atmosphere; or that the guys won’t necessarily come to you when you come from Dijon.... And in fact, it’s the complete opposite, and the image of a family club that goes with the Gym was quickly confirmed. Everyone spoke to each other at the beginning, nobody was left aside. Which is good!  

On the 14 July, when you found out that you would face Ajax in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, how did you react?  

There are two feelings. First of all, I said to myself that it’s not a good thing, because Ajax are a very good team. But deep down within me, I was still happy because when you are a footballer, you want to play against this kind of team. The other bad news: the qualifier would be played there …

And then?

And then you know the rest, we went to Amsterdam and secured the win, which was even better! After this round, we were guaranteed at least the Europa League, so a real weight was taken off of our shoulders. It remains one of the best memories of this season. The atmosphere, the quality, the intensity, everything is different in that kind of match. When you sample it, you have only one desire: to get it back as soon as possible. After that, we drew Napoli, which wasn’t a good draw either. We wanted to get into the Champions League, but to be honest, the step up was high. There was nothing really to say over the two matches.

When you arrived, did you expect to be used as much as you were?*

Yes and no. When you join a club, it’s always to play, even if you don’t know exactly how it will go. What’s sure is that I didn’t expect to play as much as I have. The coach was simple in what he said to me: stay true to yourself, play the way that I play with freshness, like at Dijon, because he had like the way I played. 

Alongside these European adventures, the start to the league proved difficult...

Exactly. Be it the fans, the staff, or the players, we didn’t expect to be in that position. Maybe it was the effect of the European games. There was a new squad, lots of people leaving and joining, including myself. We needed to adapt and we struggled, we lost lots of matches due to small details or errors. It took us time to rectify all of that, but during that period, we were not good in L1.

With hindsight, do you think that the league was too much of a harsh return to reality?  

We are professionals, you can’t look for excuses. It’s not down to Ajax or Napoli that we started the league badly. It was our own fault. End of story.  

Your moment of the summer? 

I would say the qualification in Amsterdam and the 4-0 victory over Monaco, which was also a great souvenir. We thought we had got our season going at that moment... 

Autumn: “Toulouse, the turning point of the season” 

The weeks went by and a huge gap was forming between your European performances and those domestically. How do you explain that? 

If you go over each match, you see that we often lost 1-0, 2-1; or we were even leading and then conceded a silly goal at the end. That came down to lots of little things, errors of concentration. Even us, as forwards of midfielders, we wasted a lot in front of goal. Lots of details caused us to be in that position. We were punished for every mistake.  

When the spiral becomes really bad, do you say to yourself, in a human reflex, that you had made the wrong choice in signing here?  

No, not at all, because I knew that we weren’t where we should be. And all of the group knew it too. In the dressing room, despite the run, we weren’t in crisis. We were aware of our qualities, our strengths and our weaknesses. At one moment, the experienced ones spoke up and we knew that we would turn it around. We continued to work and to remain serious, it paid off. 

Without ever questioning the Nice way of playing... 

Exactly! That’s why I came here. Dijon liked to play with the ball, I didn’t want to go somewhere where it would be different. To play it out short, control, pass, simple: I am fully behind this way of playing. Even when things were going less well, we never abandoned it. 

The short passing, sometimes make us worry when we take our place in the stands...

On the pitch, no, because it’s what we do in training every day. Sometimes there are even themes “don’t lift the ball” in the games, where we are obliged to play short and on the floor. We get used to it, that’s why we are calm. Though I wouldn’t say that we are never worried, we have to accept the goals from these kind of errors, that is part of the way we play. 

Before the match against Toulouse, Jean-Pierre Rivère and Julien Fournier came to speak to the squad. What did they say? 

That 17th or 18th were definitely not the positions we should be in. Sometimes, you can't be afraid to look each other in the eye and to say things. It wasn't harsh, tense, or anything else, but it was frank. We knew that things weren't going well. They just said the truth, simply. I think that it was a turning point, even if in the match that followed, we did well.

Was there another more internal turning point amongst the group?

I am not sure if we can talk about a turning point, but guys like Dante knew to speak at the right moment and were able to find the words, that I think, worked for us all. They told the truth, especially that the nice speeches would be of no use, if we didn't leave our guts out on the pitch. That is what happened.

Exactly, in that match against Toulouse?

Nobody was smiling down on us. We had a red card, we were trailing, then we conceded a penalty. Things were going against us. And in the end, there was a nice reaction from the whole squad and a 2-1 victory in the end. It's the key moment of our season, the point at which everybody said: "Come on, we are on the way here, let's stop the mistakes and we will climb the table." After that, we went 8 matches without defeat (in L1), which improved our position. Bit by bit, we got back to where we should have been, and then we said to ourselves that we wanted to go and push even further.

Winter: "The period of regrets"

The winter came and with it came the start of 2018, with a number of inconsistent performances.

Along with the start of the season, it's the period where we can have regrets, because we left so many points behind, especially against the smaller sides who were behind us… We often had the game in hand, and we often mucked about, sorry, there are no other words. If we had been able to control better and manage games more effectively, we wouldn't have been where we were. Against Metz, before I got the red card, I remember that we had 2 or 3 chances to score. Against Dijon, it was the same thing. We have to take 3 points from these kind of games. This year, we took 0. That cost us dearly.

It was during the winter that you started to play regularly in the heart of the game.

To be on the wing is not my preferred position, but I always listen, I adapt and I try to do my best for the team. It's true that it was from that moment that I really started playing through the middle. With the other midfielders, we have a similar way of playing, so we understood each other quickly. Personally, I was more the person who helps to finish moves, because I like running. To participate in the defensive work but not hesitating to make the runs to end a move. This was my role.

The defining moment of the winter, it's that double header against Lokomotiv Moscow (2-3; 0-1). How do you analyse these matches?

With bitterness. Once again, we lost the Round of 16 game in the first leg, at home, whilst we were dominating everything. We led 2-0, we had the chances to make it 3-0, we didn't put them away... Then we got the red card, a penalty, we started to do everything backwards and we succeeded in the end, to lose a match that we were managing perfectly.

Moscow in the Winter: Despite the defeat, it's an experience that you have to witness as a lover of football?

Yes. I loved it, even though I had never played in temperatures like that (-20° at kick-off). You don't realise it, but it really was very cold. The worst thing is for the lungs, throat and breathing. Even in those tough conditions, we can have regrets, because we hit the bar twice before they had opened the scoring. Against Lokomotiv too, there were things to be done.

Which of your teammates has impressed you the most?

I like Max (Le Marchand), because he is the player you don't hear speak. He isn't the one put into the spotlight but he does a lot of work behind the scenes. He is very clean, very calm. And he also played the 2nd half of the season at left back, and always did the job. I also get on very well with him in everyday life. Then, of course, I admire Dante, who has lived through everything, won everything and could be forgiven for letting himself go at 34, but he is the one with most drive.

Spring: "We had the place and the means" 

Finally, the Spring arrived... 

… Which went in the same way as the rest of the season. There were matches that we should have won to be in a good place and to extend the gap between us and our chasers. We didn't do it in the end, we always were involved, without ever taking the lead. It came down to the final game of the season which is frustrating.

What is your biggest regret of the season?

No to have put it to bed, when we still had the place and the means.With all the points we left behind us, we could have been calmer, 5th, on our own and on holiday when travelling to Lyon. In the end, we were obliged to go there and to play it as a final.

Your biggest source of pleasure?

The music of the Champions League. At the Allianz, I was on the bench, but I heard it and I was on the pitch at Napoli, in the San Paolo, an historic stadium, it touched me. Even though it was the play-off, when you hear that, you are like everyone else.. I remember that when I was a primary school, I used to watch just half of the matches, and then I used to go to bed. Just to hear it was crazy. 

What are your objectives for next season?

To play as much as possible and to be as effective in all levels, including in the stats; to become more deadly in the final move, be it a pass or a strike. There will be changes this summer, like everywhere, you get used to people. But at the return to training, it will be the experienced Aiglons and those who remain to welcome those new players.

C. Djivas

*For his first season in Red and Black, PLM took part in 34 battles in the league. He also made an impact on the European scene (892'), but very little in the domestic cups (71' Coupe de la Ligue). He was Lucien Favre's 3rd most used player in 2017-18.

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