•Squad list for Arras:

Gardiens: Letizi, Moreau
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Gace, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Rool
Milieux: Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Ozokwo, Quansah

Rémy, Kante, and Coulibaly all have injury problems and Adu is suspended (?!), but the rest of the absences are being rested or, in the case of Barul and Moussilou, cruelly ignored. Antonetti said earlier this week that Moreau could get the start if Letizi can’t go and, though the match is being taken seriously, it’s nevertheless thought that guys like Hognon, Cid, Traoré, Ben Saada and Modeste could all figured in the first XI.

•Though he returned to Nice not yet fully recovered from the injury he picked up last month, Rémy is due to start training again on Tuesday, and is expected to be in the squad when L1 resumes on the 10th. Woo hoo!

•Not surprisingly, Roger Ricort is denying that the club are interested in either Dindane (yes, him again) or Sablé, the former because he (still) costs too much, and the latter because, well, they just don’t want him.

•During the break, both Cyril #1 (who Google translate calls “the crustiest“) and Chouf talked to Nice-Matin about the season so far, and both of them, while pleased with the 30 points the team have amassed, pointed to the canceled Grenoble match as the thing that screwed everything up because it “broke our rhythm.” Cursed rain!

•In an interview with the official site, Antonetti also gave his take on the first half, praising the team’s ability to take points even when they don’t play their best, and being his usual, eminently reasonable self in bringing some perspective to how high Nice were flying about a month ago. (He, also, lists the cancellation of the Grenoble match as one of his regrets, along with the loss to Le Havre on the season’s opening weekend.)

•Ospina was voted Nice player of the month for December, because he is just that awesome.

Happy New Year, everybody. Hopefully next time we talk, it’ll be about advancing in the Coupe de France, and not about some sort of humiliating disaster.

•The Grenoble match will be played either a week from today or on the 17th of this month. The 10th was the league’s initial proposal, but Pierre Wantiez had a fit about Nice getting an extra day of rest, so it could be pushed back a week. (In response to the fit, Antonetti turned on the sarcasm and suggested that maybe a strike is in order, if only to ensure three full days of rest between matches. Oh, snap!)

•Out of concern for the proverbial “public safety,” the police have stepped in and forced the cancellation of the special train that was to take Nice supporters to the OM match. In light of past problems, one understands their concerns, but Nice’s security guy had a point when he suggested it’d be a lot easier for police to manage the supporters if they were all in one place, rather than arriving as they will now, via bus and car, at various times and locations.

•The official site has an interview with Chouf ahead of the match, in which he’s characteristically cautious, and also expresses some concern about the team going two weeks between games.

•Nice Premium ran a long interview with Maurice Cohen on Sunday, and even through the filter of Google translate, it’s well worth a read. Among other topics, he discusses the status of the club’s youth program, if there will be any winter signings, what’s up with Chouf’s and Letizi’s contracts, and how the defense will stand at this time next season. (He also reveals that Cyril #2 has a clause in his contract whereby it’s automatically extended if he reaches a designated number of appearances. That’s, like, flying car technology right there!)

•On the topic of signings, a couple different sources are reporting that Nice are tracking Monaco’s Camel Meriem. No idea of there’s any validity to the stories at all, though. Anyone?

•Via the OGC Nissa forums, here’s an Infosport feature on Nice from last week that includes some of the yelling at Habib! (among others) that I’m always talking about. It’s hilarious even to me, so I’m guessing people who actually understand French will enjoy it, as well.

•And, finally, I can’t find the original source, but one of the fan sites is reporting that Antonetti has officially announced the gloves are Ospina’s after Christmas. Nice. (Nahhhc, not Neece.) He also may end up playing against OM, depending on how Letizi’s feeling — the old man didn’t train at all yesterday.

ETA: The train to Marseille has been un-canceled.

Gardiens: Moreau, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Jeunechamp, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Letizi, Ozokwo (blessés), Adu, Barul, Gace, Moussilou, Quansah (choix de l’entraîneur)

* * *

Sorry I’ve not been around this week — travel, family and Thanksgiving seriously cut into my interwebs time, so I’m way behind. What I do know, though, is that Letizi’s got some sort of abdominal problem, so Ospina will make his third L1 start tomorrow. And Grenoble won’t make life easy for him — they’ve got the fourth-best away record in the league and, were it not for their dire home record, would be a lot higher in the table. Definitely not a team to be taken lightly.

I’ve got to get back to grind of eating, but I’ll be back with a match report early next week, if not before. Until then, here’s an article about all Nice’s old people that, somewhat factiously, points out that there are two similarities between Nice and Milan: They both wear red and black, and both also rely heavily on the aged. (Oh, and both teams are second in the table. That’s a bonus similarity.) Additionally, there’s a nice (ha ha) article at UEFA.com about the team that sort of sums up the season thus far, celebrating the new additions and throwing some love the way of Chouf and Cyril #1.

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Jeunechamp
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Quansah
Absents: Traoré, Rémy (blessés), Adu, Barul, Gace, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

Away from tomorrow’s squad, there were at least three articles about Emerse Faé in various French outlets yesterday. Did he hold an all-press conference call, or something? I guess, as a former Nantes player, he’s the obvious person to talk to as the media try in uselessly to generate neutral interest in the match — it was worth a try, anyway. Sadly for the press, Faé didn’t have anything controversial to say, though he nevertheless didn’t shy away from agreeing with the assertion that there are significant problems at Nantes, problems that were not solved by their brief stay in L2. (Not exactly an earth-shattering revelation.) As a kid at Nantes, because of the problems there, he thought constant “tension off the field” was the norm, which is among the saddest things I’ve ever heard. Happily, though, Nice is showing him otherwise, and he’s loving life on the Côte d’Azur, in no small part because he’s playing regularly after a year in the stands in England.

Doing their part in the build-up, Ouest France ran an interview with Antonetti, who assured them he’s “very much in Nice” and that his family loves the city so he’s not going anywhere. (Cross your fingers, everyone.) He also talks about the insane youth of his team — despite the ancient people who are central to Nice, 16 of the players on the roster are between 18 and 22 years old (GOOD GOD) — and assures the reporter the team can still improve in every area.

If I find a stream tomorrow, I’ll put it up. Otherwise, enjoy your minute-by-minute text updates, everyone!

ETA: Lots of streams here, and not just the TV-aimed-at-webcam kind.

•Ben Saada played 10 minutes of Tunisia’s 1-3 friendly loss to France yesterday. Friendly or not, it was a big match for him personally, since he’s French-born and won a U-17 title in a France shirt before choosing Tunisia as his senior side. (Based on his grinny, pre-match interview, though, he’s never had much regret about the choice.)

•Quansah scored on a free kick to beat Gambia 1-0, putting Ghana’s U20s into their first Africa Youth Championships since 2001. W00t! (Thanks to commenter Mawuli for the heads-up.)

•There’s still work to do for Rémy, who played 92 minutes (and then was subbed) in the Bleuets’ 1-1 draw with Germany last week, and is quietly confident ahead of today’s massive, all-or-nothing second leg.

•In actual Nice team news, Kanté is suspended for the derby because of accumulated yellows. Superb.

•Letizi missed training yesterday with a calf strain, but he’s hoping to be back on the pitch today. (What a L1 debut Monaco would be for Ospina, huh? No pressure, kiddo.)

•Lots of prematch quotes here, from Faé, Cyril #1, and Hellebuyck, none of whom even bother to throw out the old “it’s just another match” line, given that the match would be massive even if it wasn’t the freaking derby.

•The gaffer, meanwhile, is already working the referees, saying he remembers near-violent conduct from Monaco last season, but — picture a very serious, slightly sad expression on Antonetti’s round face for this bit — that now he “hope[s for] fair arbitration.”

•And, finally, Roger Ricort and Eric Roy gave what is actually a pretty interesting interview radio interview this week. The full interview is up at ogcnice.tv, if you pay for that, but if not, the high points are here, including discussion of the futures of Matt Moussilou and Morrisson Ozokwo (the latter is rendered confusedly by Google Translate), a touch of regret about what happened with Laslandes, and vague plans to buy in the winter transfer window.

Now, if you’re anywhere near Nice, get offline and to the team store so you can see Cyril #1 and Ospina present the new kit. Go! Take pictures!

Apologies for the lack of posts, but there’s nothing freaking going on, apart from the official site failing to keep up with the schedule they made for ogcnice.tv. The one change there is that we can now pay €50 for access to the site for the whole season or, alternately, not pay anything and still have complete access! (One assumes something will change eventually, but they appear to be a little confused about the order in which these things should be done.)

In news that’s not me bitching and moaning (and I’m warning you, there’s not much):

•Nice will face L2 side Boulogne (away) in the Coupe de la Ligue in two weeks.

•Majority shareholder Gilbert Stellardo was on 100% Aiglons this week (you can see it at ogcnice.tv) and addressed a bunch of topics, from Matt Moussilou (going to UAE, they swear), the club’s financial position (they need €5 million/season to compete with the top six), and the goals of the shareholders (they want to make the club better, but aren’t stupid enough not to sell immediately if someone drops out of the sky with a pile of money to invest).

•Apam picked up a leg knock yesterday and has been shut down until tomorrow; he’s questionable for Saturday. Fantastic. (That Yahia loan’s looking particularly bad right now, huh?)

•There’s a very brief, very flattering profile of Antonetti at football.fr, which ends by describing him as “the kind of coach who makes us think about all that is not just money” in football. Damn right.

•Cyril #1 talked to the official site yesterday about the Lyon match, both professing his love for Lloris and Ederson (”we will kiss before and after the match”), and also hoping Nice are the first team to score against Hugo this season. And, if they’re not, he expects a 0-0 draw. Here’s hoping he’s on the pitch Saturday, helping to decide the result.

If your club’s not buying or selling a superstar or sending players to Big Name European National Teams, international breaks are almost entirely bereft of items of interest. The Nice players not on international duty are busy training (there’s a very boring video proving this at the official site), and the rest are off with their national teams, training in such seclusion that no photo or news agencies can find them. (Well, either that or they don’t want to find them. But that’s can’t be it, right?)

The news, such as it is:

•Despite the absence of so many first-team players, Matt Moussilou, Patrick Baru and Joseph-Desire Job all remain in the reserve team, while babies from the youth team join the big kids for training. Supposedly Moussilou and Baru could be heading to Qatar sooner than later, Moussilou returning to the site of his goal-scoring explosion last year, while Baru will embark on a brand new adventure there (where someone other than Nice will be paying him).

•Traoré will be out two weeks with the thigh injury he picked up against Valenciennes, so thank goodness Ben Saada is back. Cyril #1, supposedly, will be back in full training this weekend. So they say, anyway — I realize we’ve heard this before.

•Lilian Laslandes, who was supposed to be patient this summer and wait for Nice to resign him, is still without a contract, and is regretting not signing the extension he was offered last winter. He’s apparently considering retiring, which is sad, but the man is ancient in footballing terms and, even with the pay cut to which he agreed last winter, still earns a pretty substantial salary. Nice may regret letting him go if there are awful striker injury problems later in the season (Excuse me for a second while I knock on wood and throw salt everywhere.), but at the moment it just seems like a good business decision not to keep him around.

•Even with the lofty place in the table (Fourth! FOURTH!), Antonetti’s keeping his wits about him, and is already thinking about next summer — he’s well aware of what happens to clubs who sell the top players every summer, and doesn’t want Nice to follow their examples and end up floundering in L2. Is there anything better than a coach who always sees the worst possible future? I don’t think so. (That’s sincere, by the way. I absolutely love his fierce refusal to get excited about anything.)

•Hellebuyck and Chouf have weighed in on the team’s progress this week, the former discussing new tactics (pushing further up the pitch and trying to attack more) and the latter (on 100% Aiglons, which is available on the official website in annoying flash video form) lauding the team’s “fabulous state of mind.”

Only nine days until Lyon.

Apologies for the light posting this week, I’m mid-travel and probably won’t be able to get a preview up, either. Things’ll settle down next week, though, just in time to get stressed out over the trip to Lyon.

Meanwhile, some odds and ends ahead of Valenciennes.

•Less than 24 hours after his fantastic performance against Auxerre, Yahia’s departure was being discussed. Understandably, the guy wants to play more, and is willing to move to do so — according to Ricort, there are a few clubs in L1 interested, so Alaeddine could be on his way out on the weekend. One wonders, though, why in the world they’d sell him and hold on to Cid and Gace, unless the price is obscenely high (unlikely) — anyone got any thoughts, beyond utter madess?

•After several weeks of assuring us that a new striker would arrive before the transfer window closed, the club are now saying they might not bring anyone in after all. This is not, however, because there’s no one in their price range who’s willing to come to Nice — never that — but, rather, because of the concern about cramping the style of the kids in the team who need to play. Look, I’m all for playing and developing youth, but there’s never anything wrong with adding a grizzled veteran who can a)set an example, and b)get the job done when the chips are down. That possibility, however, seems fainter and fainter.

•Oh, and Moussilou’s still around, and the club are losing patience. Said Ricort (via Google Translate), “The problem with Matt, there is too much difference between what he says and what it does.” (What he does right now is hang around and make money for, well, hanging around.)

•Cyril #1 and Hognan were back in training on Tuesday, albeit it working on their own, but the club claims they could be available for Saturday’s match. Ben Saada, however, will definitely miss the game. Dammit.

When it rains, it pours — not only will Cyril #1 miss the Nancy game (at least) with a calf problem, but Ben Saada, one of the brightest spots from the Le Havre match in his 20 minutes of play, is now also out with a twisted ankle. Both of them are undergoing tests this week (I think Rool’s is today) to discern the severity of their injuries, and learn how long they’ll be missing. Jesus H., what a nightmare — poor Antonetti must be wondering what’s next, particularly after Ben Saada’s eye-catching work against Le Havre.

Away from the pitch, Roger Ricort recently gave another interview about the present and future of the club, and that word “infrastructure” came up yet again. It’s fascinating to me how frank he is — on one hand, there’s the ambition to establish Nice as one of the top six clubs in France and make regular European appearances. On the other, though, he’s talking about relegation, and whether or not the club could survive in L2 without making changes, as well as frankly addressing the issue of how the club is viewed by the football establishment in France. (Is Hugo Lloris suddenly a better player, having spent a month with Lyon? Is that why he’s now getting a call to the senior NT? Doubtful.) In the interview, Ricort also further discusses the difficulty of bringing players to the club, specifically mentioning the ongoing Dindane saga (which now seems to involved Lille), and the fantasy of Mateja Kežman.

It’s a really interesting balance of brutal honesty and establishing a scapegoat — as we’ve talked about here before if things don’t work out (whatever those things are), there is always the “infrastructure” to blame, and the politicians and developer who are making it impossible to erect a big, shiny new ground yesterday. Ideally, you’d like the club to take greater responsibility for its weaknesses, but the reality of the situation is such that, at a certain point, things really are out of their hands.

And, in other news:

•Rémy’s been called into Erick Mombaerts’ inagural Bleuet side for the Slovakia match next Tuesday. (Cross everything he doesn’t get hurt.) There’s also a new interview with him here, in which he continues to display surprising maturity — either someone coaches him really well in how to deal with the press, or there’s a lot more to the kid than initially meets the eye.

•There’s a brand new interview with Antonetti up on the official site, in which he reveals the club are working on finishing (No!) — something he, presumably with a straight face, labels “long-term work” — and that Eric Mouloungui just got back into regular training, which I think means he’s ahead of schedule. He’s obviously got a long way to go in terms of match fitness, but every healthy body helps.

•Coulibaly and Apam are both into the knockout stage of the Olympics, and they’ll face one another on Saturday in the quarters. Somebody will be home soon.

Sorry for the semi-absence this week, I’ve been traveling and have only now settled in once place (for a while), so there sadly won’t be a proper preview for the Le Havre match. Instead, I can offer you some links, will that do? What if I pledge real previews in the future? Excellent.

•Both Coulibaly and Apam started and played all 90 minutes in their Olympic matches yesterday. Ivory Coast ran Argentina raged but lost 2-1 on a late goal, while Nigeria drew 0-0 with the Dutch.

•Fooball365.fr released a preseason poll of football journalists today, all of whom were asked to pick the top three and bottom three, and explain their choices. Three of them picked Nice to go down for obvious, ZOMG SO MANY PEOPLE ARE GONE! reasons. Hopefully we’ll look back on this and laugh.

•Official numbers — no one’s taken over Baky’s shirt, but Traore’s been assigned Ederson’s #10, Fae’s got Balmont’s #14, Ospina’s got the #1 shirt, and poor, unloved Matt Moussilou will get nothing and like it!

•A recent official site interview with Letizi, who praises Ospina and tries to temper his habitual positivity with a bit of caution about the season ahead. Good man.

•Totally unsurprising squad list for tomorrow. I’ve read that Hognan definitely will not play, but since he’s on the team sheet it looks like there’s at least a little optimism he could be fit by game time. Fingers crossed, everyone.

•New Antonetti interview, in which he cautions against taking preseason results to heart, laments the financial situation that makes that elusive New Attacker difficult to land, and shows some love for his 4-3-3.

•On the topic of the new attacker, Nice are still after Dindane, apparently, and talks are either underway with Lens or they’ve broken down after Nice’s offer was rejected. As usual, the truth is anyone’s guess, but at the very least it sounds like they’re still trying to find someone. Even someone with only one good leg.

If anyone somehow manages to watch the match tomorrow, please share your impressions in the comments. Assuming God doesn’t come down in person (in deity) and demand a stream, I won’t see it beyond highlights until the official site gets it uploaded (which usually takes a couple days), so the full match report won’t come until then.