Press conference

Favre, transfer window, ambitions: the words of the President

This Monday, Lucien Favre appeared before the press, to talk about his return to the bench of OGC Nice. As in 2016, Jean-Pierre Rivère took his place alongside "the Swiss magician" to answer questions from the press. An important opportunity to lift the lid on many topical issues. Here they are compiled in 3 major themes.

THE RETURN OF LUCIEN FAVRE

"It is a new page of OGC that is being turned. We have the great pleasure of welcoming Lucien Favre among us. I am very happy. We've always had contact with Lucien, even last year. I don't hide the fact that I've always had a human affection for Lucien, and moreover on a sporting level, it's the game I like to see. When you manage a football club, you want to see your team playing good football. I said to myself, "We have a 1 in 100 chance of getting him, let's go for it." When you believe in something, when you can carry that belief, it's important that your shareholder shares it. Dave (Brailsford) played a major role in this, he accompanied me and brought this project to the shareholders."

"In this project that we have, that we will all share, I invite you to come to the stadium in large numbers, because we need all our supporters to build this project and develop it. So don't hesitate to join us! ! »

THE LAST FEW WEEKS

"You (journalists) have had very little information lately. You may have had the impression that we were in the dark. Absolutely not. We have some pretty remarkable owners, people who have been able to listen, to understand. Dave joined us six weeks ago, he's done a huge amount of work to understand the club and audit it. He is the boss of INEOS Sport, he oversees everything: F1, sailing, cycling, the marathon, the All Blacks. All these entities are at the top of their sport, performing, winning, and underneath there was OGC Nice. We were not part of this galaxy. We wanted OGC Nice to be part of this INEOS Sport galaxy and to benefit from all the exchanges that can take place.”

"We have proposed a strategy that is a little different from what we have experienced over the last two or three years. In particular, we wanted to rediscover one thing: the club's DNA. In any case, that's where we want to go: to have a good game, to enjoy ourselves, and for OGC Nice to be recognisable, beyond its shirt, by its way of playing. It's a point that was very important. That's why we are delighted to welcome Lucien. We have very good memories. We know that together we will do great things.”

THE TRANSFER WINDOW

"In the framework of the "process" that we want to put in place with INEOS, we will try to professionalise everything as much as possible. There were already some very good things at OGC Nice, we really want to become extremely efficient. That requires a lot of work and a lot of dialogue. Things will be relatively collective. It's going to be very collaborative.”

"In football, you have a word that can block many things: financial fair play. OGC Nice has income today, but not enough compared to direct competitors like Marseille or Lyon. We have this financial fair play constraint. We're going to try to do as much as we can while staying within the limits. We have a powerful group, which has indeed bought the best in each sport. It is ready to accompany OGC Nice to grow, but the limit is there. What we need today is to be the most efficient, the most innovative possible. Our objective is to make OGC Nice a successful club at all levels. This will be done gradually. The will is there, we are very ambitious, but we need some time. We'll do things the right way, we're not talking about big names but about recruiting in the best possible way and giving the coach the means to work well.”