One hour before the first training session began on Monday, Lucien Favre appeared before the press. Even though numerous questions centered around the transfer market, his answers remained identical. The club is working on it and the files are taking their course. Away from the transfer talk, here are the coach's first words of the season.

His second season in Nice

"Of course I am happy to stay with Nice. Look at my career: even in April when questions were asked, I answered that I had always stayed for several years with the clubs that I have managed."

The return he expects

"We are starting back one week before the others. The first week, we will have lots of tests etc. And they will last from the Monday until Friday, and in order to be ready for our first match on 25 July (3rd qualifying round of the Champions League), we need at least 5 weeks."

The new recruits  

"They are midfielders. Lees-Melou is a very very good player who can play on the right and in a middle 3. He had a very good season with Dijon. Jean-Victor Makengo is a young player with plenty talent at 18 years old, but still has work to be done. That could take a bit of time, in the same way as for Tameze who played for Valenciennes

His ambitions 

"It's difficult to give our ambitions at this stage. There is already the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, then the league, which is going to be really tough, with the big sides, plus teams like Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, who had really strong second halves of the season and are strengthening. And there are always one or two surprises. The league will be a very good level. There will be no easy matches. We will try our best, and then we will see."  

The "Q3"

Our potential opponents in the 3rd qualifying round (called "Q3"), are really solid. We can't say that there is a team to avoid. They are all of a very high calibre.

The style of play 

It's good to set yourself up in a system, but when you look at other leagues, you can see you need some flexibility. You need to be ready to change, to go three at the back. 4-4-3, 4-2-3-1, even 4-4-2 works well. You have to be ready to react and anticipate.

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