Nice 2-0 Valenciennes
Buts: Bamogo (52è), Rémy (85è) pour Nice
Expulsion: Tiéné (31è) à Valenciennes

Nice: Letizi – Diakité, Apam, Kanté (Cid, 84è), Jeunechamp – Echouafni (c), Faé, Hellebuyck – Traoré (Ben Saada, 26è), Rémy, Bamogo (Modeste, 76è)

Valenciennes: Penneteau – Ducourtioux, Bisevac, Rafael (c), Tiéné – Saez, Sanchez, Mater (M. Traoré, 46è), Danic (Bangoura, 60è) – Audel, Pujol (Sebo, 80è)

[Post-match interviews here.]

* * *

Everyone acknowledges that Valenciennes were poor, even before they went down to 10 men, but that doesn’t do anything to take the shine off the three points, or the spot near the top of the table. Alright, so there was a missed PK and some wasteful attacks, but the team are playing with urgency and confidence, and getting points in spite of their own screw ups.

As always, Antonetti’s keeping his wits about him and refusing to get overly excited, but Captain Chouf and Bamogo — who finally got his goal — were thrilled with both the result and the nine points from a possible 12 in the month. No matter the quality of the opponents, this August has been a great launching pad for the trip to Lyon after the international break — no one could have asked for anything more than to be within a point of the top going into that match. (A match which it’s actually going to be possible to see, for once. Huzzah!)

In terms of individual performances, Hellebuyck recovered from a couple quiet weeks to be the unanimous MOTM — he hit the post twice and was a lively presence in the midfield. Ben Saada made his return from injury (coming on for an injured Traoré, which is no good at all) and was impressive, as well — he assisted on Bamogo’s goal and is once again being optimistically seen as the eventual replacement for Ederson in the middle of the pitch. And, finally, Letizi wasn’t scary, Apam made his return from the Olympics and was his usual, rock-like self, and Rémy, despite missing a PK, was one again good.

As players trickle back in, the team really seems to be coming together. If all goes well they’ll get the last piece (Cyril #1) back for Week 5, and can make a good accounting of themselves in Lyon.

* * *

In other news:

•Yahia is heading to Lens today for a year-long loan with the option to buy; quite understandably, he’d rather go to Lens and help them return to L1 than sit on the bench week-in and week-out in Nice. Hopefully this won’t come to bite Nice in the ass if there are injury problems, and Cid or Gace is forced into the back.

•Baky is a hero in Marseille. *sniffle*

•The video section of the official website is getting all fancy, with schedules and everything. Coming up this week are an interview with Chouf, the usual behind-the-scenes look at last weekend’s match, and a visit to training.

[Photo by LSN]

There’s been no movement on Nice’s interest in Dindane (now heavily tipped in the media to go to England, where a lot of clubs are allegedly interested), and the Piquionne story has stalled, as well — the latest news is that he’s rejected both Lille and Rennes, and Monaco may or may not have turned down Lyon’s exchange offer (people over in Lyon-land doubt it) because they want cash, ideally the same €6.75 million they paid for the player 18 months ago. Beyond those two, most of the other rumored targets seem to be just idle speculation, so there’s nothing to do but just sit and wait for Cohen to buy someone who can score some goals. Or, at least, for him to drop some more hints so we can talk about the hints.

Away from the suddenly very boring transfer market, I found an interesting article about the new kits and their F1-style edge-to-edge advertising. I don’t know what the numbers are for other clubs, but Nice reportedly rely on sponsorship for almost 15% of their annual budget and, since most of their advertisers are relatively small (and local, as was discussed in the comments Sunday), it makes sense that they need to pile them up in order to reach the income level they need. I still think it’s terribly ugly, but I get it. City Sport left as a sponsor, and three new, smaller ones were added; if one assumes none of the new ones (Ubaldi.com, Minéa and Nasuba) were willing to pay whatever City Sport had been for their space, the eruption of tiny ads all over the place is a logical result of the turnover. Also, Minéa is a “creator of space.” I don’t know what that is, but I like it — if only they’d bought more kit real estate and had room to explain what they do, maybe across the back of the shorts …

And, finally, Baky’s set to make his OM debut against Monaco tomorrow, at the same time Nice are playing their first real test of the preseason, against Grenoble. Sigh.

The way he left aside, Baky was a great servant to the club. He arrived from L’Orient for €2.5 million three years ago with an outrageous scoring record, and quickly because Nice’s most potent offensive force. For all the goals he scored, though, I personally respect Baky most for his toughness — my most vivid recent memory of him is from the home Lille match last season, when Adil Rami tackled him in the box so high and so hard you’d have been forgiven for thinking Baky was dead. But like he has a million other times in a million other matches, he waiting til his head stopped spinning, got up and soldiered on. Getting beat up is a fact of life for anyone with his pace and skill on the ball, but Baky’s stature makes his resilience and durability even more admirable; that part of his game could well be as hard to replace as his goals. (Coincidentally, Remy got hurt in the friendly today. Super.)

So, needless to say, Nice need to spend some more of their summer transfer profits, and soon. Even though the goals are piling up in today’s friendly (It just ended at 4-0), the departures of Ederson and Baky leave David Hellebuyck (5) as the top scorer still in the team, and neither Modeste, Bamogo, or Remy’s got a record of sustained success at the top level. Cohen has professed an interest in Frederic Piquionne but he’s not hopeful, particularly given Lyon’s apparent desire for the player, and there are still Dindane and Tenorio, but there’s been no movement on either, at least as far as anyone has heard. Arg. I know, the transfer window is far from closing, but waiting is hard when a club is as desperate as Nice seem to be for reinforcement.

There are, however, a couple minor, non-Baky things going on today. First, even though there has been some conversation this summer about Anthony Mounier moving to Nice, that conversation has cooled a lot, and Mounier himself wants to stay in Lyon. Thanks for that, Anthony. Second, it’s now been confirmed that, as was discussed in the comments yesterday, Lyon academy grad Mickaël Charvet is on trial at Nice for an unspecified length of time. It’s still unclear to me whether he was released or just has been giving permission to try to get a first-team spot elsewhere, but he played a half in Tuesday’s friendly, and will doubtless get more time tomorrow.

So, Baky. Baky is thisclose to being a Marseille player. Seriously, it’s really almost done this time. As expected, Nice caved on their percentage of the resale value, so the clubs have agreed terms: €9 million + €1 million bonus, depending on CL qualification + 6% of Baky’s future price. What’s the problem? The problem is between Nice and Koné — according to Baky’s contract, the club have to pay him 7% of whatever they make from selling him (about €630,000, in this case), and Nice are refusing to pay.

Tangent: What a fantastic clause to have in your contract! Is it common and we just rarely hear about it because clubs usually pay it, or is it just a coincidence that the both Baky and Hatem Ben Arfa have the clause (or was Ben Afra’s a performance bonus?), and both of their clubs refused to pay?

Ostensibly, Nice are saying the reason for their refusal is that Baky skipped training last week, which I suppose they can claim violated his contract. But, since both Cohen and Antonetti paid lip service to Baky’s doctor’s note and his alleged gastroenteritis, it’s hard to imagine they’ve got much of a legal leg to stand on there. Of course, if the press continue to report the €630,000 roadblock as Koné blocking his own transfer, maybe it’s actually a savvy move by Cohen: He’s lost a lot of respect from the fans for the way he’s knuckled under in these negotiations (particularly after standing so firm, first at €15 million, and then at €12 million) — by playing hardball at the last minute and turning the already isolated Baky into the bad guy, he could be salvaging a bit of positive PR. Plus, it’s probably a lot less damaging to future negotiations to have a player mad at him than it would have been to alienate Pape Diouf and his entire club.

It’s anyone’s guess what’s going to happen here — practically speaking, Baky’s desperate to join OM, is going to more than double his salary there, and will be just fine without the €630,000. Given how pissed he was in his last official statement, though, one has to wonder if he’s going to stand on principle here, and try to face down the club that he believes has been trying to screw up him over since this whole soap opera started. If he does, Cohen’s going to be forced to fold yet again, which would sour his status with fans even further.

ETA: Baky apparently agreed to wave some of his bonus, and the deal is finally done.

Because, based on the results of the first two friendies, Nice are in desperate need of firepower up front — after the 1-5 loss to the unemployed UNFP squad, they drew 0-0 last night against amateur side ES Fréjus (Without Baky, who officially begged off because of a lack of fitness. Mmmhmm.). Sigh. Just so we’re clear, I’m the first to say that early friendlies don’t mean much* — they’re used basically to get people fit, experiment with systems and personnel, and to break up the monotony of training twice a day for weeks on end. That said, though, it’s only human get frustrated by lackluster results — a goal or four against Nîmes (by which point the group that just got back should be fit enough to be working their ways into the side) on Friday would do the heart a lot of good.

First half:

Ospina
Jeunechamp-Hognon-Gace-Rool
Echouafni-Fae-Hellebuyck
Rémy-Modeste-Bamogo

Second half:

Moreau
Faviana-Charvet-Gace-Berthommier
Coulibaly-Quansah-Pastor
Ozokwo-Asamoah-Bamogo (Adu, 60th)

The only changes in the first half team from the UNFP match are down to injury: Letizi is either still not fit or is being held out for precautionary reasons, and Cid also seems to have picked up an unspecified knock (anyone with more info on his status, please share). According to the official site’s report — take it with as many grains of salt as you see fit — the good things were Ospina and Rémy: The Colombian was strong in his debut, both with his feet and in the air and, for the second match in a row, Remy was the best player on the pitch, hitting the post again and making himself the focus of the Nice attack (such as it was) throughout the first half. The other attackers sound like they’re struggling mightily, though, which I will try not to get worried about until we get further into the preseason. Try.

In the second half Antonetti really went with the kids — all the youth players once again got 45 minutes, and for the first time the two Ghanian trialists (Quansah and Adu) got runs, as well. The report makes it sounds like Nice were much better in the second half but still couldn’t finish, failing to capitalize on at least one open goal.

So, training today and tomorrow: Lots of running, lots of shooting drills? What? It’s not that easy?

*The Knicks were undefeated in the Vegas summer league last season, and Nate Robinson was MVP. Nuff said.

ETA: Thanks to Corey for reminding me: That Charvet in the defense in the second half is Lyon’s Mickael Charvet who, from what I can tell, just turned up this week. I can’t find anything about his arrival, but the Nice website refers to him as a “former” Lyon defender — Inara, John, was he released?

Nice do seem to be at least trying to prepare for life without Baky, though: They’ve reportedly already made an offer — including a three-year contract — for Lens’ Aruna Dindane, who won’t be back on the pitch for anyone until at least mid-fall. Dindane’s not exactly without suitors: In addition to several foreign clubs, he’s also supposedly being watched by Nancy, ASSE, Lyon and Marseille, though one does wonder if the latter is actually interested or just want to make difficult for Cohen, for which it’d be hard to blame them. Lens fan sites claim Dindane wants to stay, though one wonders how legit that is, particularly given the talent-dumping Lens has been doing since the transfer window opened. Carlos Tenorio, too, remains in the frame, but he may be a bit too rich for Nice’s blood.

In other news, Ospina went through his first Nice practice today and, while Letizi was there and at least went through some fitness work, I’ve not seen any updates on his condition; if anyone has, pleased drop your knowledge in the comments.

The team travel to Fréjus tomorrow for their second friendly, in which they’ll try not to give up five goals. Any thoughts on whether Antonetti will take everyone along, or leave the group who just arrived today at home to work on getting their legs back?

*A group that does not, as Lyon have once again told everyone, include them.

ETA: Asked about the Baky Situation, Pape Diouf says “common sense can … prevail,” whatever that means.

Apparently one of the symptoms of gastroenteritis is a shocking new haircut, but other than that it’s business as usual.

(More later.)

•The only eye-witness report of last night’s match that I can find is here. It doesn’t sound like it was as big of a debacle as the scoreline suggests, but it’s hard for me to tell because Google translate really wrecks havoc with the story. In good news, Remy reportedly played really well. As for the rest, fatigue, as can be expected, was a problem, but so were individual errors in front of goal, which is worrying. (One hopes, I guess, that they were a function of fatigue, and won’t become habit. Maybe.) Also worrying is the fact that Letizi picked up a knock during his 45 minutes of action; he’ll be reexamined today.

•If his short interview with L’Equipe can be believed, Baky’s in a great mood, and is happy to return to training on Monday. He still wants to go to OM and makes no secret of it, but it doesn’t look like he plans to do any (more) pouting, which is nice to hear.

•And Antonetti will be happy to have Baky back — he’s going to welcome him “as a father welcomes his son … Even if, sometimes, there are tensions family.” That said, he understands Baky wanting to leave, and doesn’t sound like he has any interested in standing in his way: “Our policy is clear. The players remain in Nice two or three years. It is a springboard. You can not then tell them to stay.” Man. Like I said in the comments on yesterday’s post, I like Antonetti, and how matter-of-fact he usually is — no one’s going to get him to talk about wild goals, or to praise a new player (Remy, for example) as the savior. The team is what it is, and everyone has work to do.

•There’s only a short excerpt from the interview Remy did with France Football online, but what’s there is encouraging, if he’s really as modest as willing to work as his words suggest.

•Chaouki Ben Saada also gave a frank interview this week, talking about his weaknesses, and his commitment to improving his game. I don’t know much about this guy, but everything I hear makes me respect him more as a person — you’ve got to be pretty special to not only follow your childhood team down to Ligue 2, but also sign a new contract with them when you know you’re leaving, just to make sure they get value for you when you’re sold. Talking like he does in the interview only reinforces that good impression.

Good weekend, everyone — assuming nothing earth-shattering happens tomorrow, I’ll see you on Monday.

•Things are bad with Koné — as I said in the comments last night, when player and club are having virtual arguments via their respective websites and battling for the title of Guy With the Shiniest Halo, it’s rarely a good sign. Cohen has made the supporters happy by digging in his heels with both l’OM and Baky; now it’s time to quietly figure out a way to let him go for a figure close to the €10 million-ish price Nice seem to have wanted all along, even back when the party line was “he won’t leave for less than €15 million.” (It’d be really nice to get it sorted before Monday, at which point Baky’s expected to have recovered from his “gastroenteritis” and be back in training. Too much to ask, I realize.)

•Along with Marseille, PSG are supposedly also interested in Koné and, if Sidney Govou and Fred leave Lyon, the press claim that they’ll turn around and buy Baky (they’d probably get him on the cheap, given how much they paid for Lloris). Lyon, however, were quick to refute the story, announcing on their website that not only do they not want Koné, but also that Govou is staying. I’ll leave the details of Govou and Fred to Inara and John, but I have to say the denial is sort of disappointing — it’d be fun to watch the OM sections of the internets melt down when Baky went to Lyon for a bag of balls and a kiss on the cheek.

•Alongside long(ish)-term interests Frederic Piquionne and Carlos Tenoriohere, there was a story in Le Parisien this morning that Nice also see Lens’ Aruna Dindane as a possible replacement for Koné, whenever he ends up leaving. Dindane blew out his knee last spring and will miss the first several months of the season, but he has scored goals for Lens the last couple of seasons and could probably be had fairly cheaply, as they continue to off-load salary. Apart from that, like Baky, he’s little, fast and Ivorian and looks good on YouTube (the Lens goals are way less impressive than the ones in Belgium, I have to say), I’m ashamed to say I know nothing about Dindane — anyone who has opinions, please share them.

•Also, during the Baky frenzy, I failed to report that Souleymane Camara, who spent last season on loan with Montpellier, has made his move there permanent for an undisclosed fee. This is surely good for everybody, since he had one goal in his whole Nice life, and scored 11 last season for Montpellier. Also, Matt Moussilou, after a season and a half on loan at ASSE, Marseille, and Al Arabi (where he was a goal-scoring machine), is now once again taking up space at Nice. Who wants him? Bueller? Anyone?

•There video up at the official website of Ospina’s press conference yesterday. Not that, you know, it affects his football or anything, but he’s pretty adorable at the end when he tries to speak French and gets all flustered. Reminds you of both how young he is, and how mature Lloris is for his age. Sigh.

•Finally, Nice’s first friendly is tomorrow night in Vichy, against a team that I gather will be made up of players training at a UNFP camp. I’ll report on anything I can find out about it, but with most of the Africans still away, it’s going to be a pretty makeshift team.

Now, though, there’s finally some news: Maurice Cohen just did an interview with L’Equipe and, if the president is to be believed, negotiations are over, and Baky’s not going to Marseille. And no, dammit, this is not “a way … to put pressure on l’OM!” Why would you even suggest such a thing? (Pape Diouf, very disapprovingly and somewhat wordily, has no comment.)

According to L’Equipe, Nice countered Marseille’s most recent offer (€8.5 million + a €1 million bonus) with a request for €9 million + a €1 million bonus + 15% of the resale price when Baky moves on; l’OM refused, so Cohen broke off negotiations, “nicely, without getting angry.” (As if Nice could do otherwise. And no, I will never stop making that joke.) That does not, however, mean Baky’s off the market — all it means is that talks with Marseille are over. Nice remain very happy to sit down with anyone who can come up with their €12 million asking price.

The best part of all this, however, is not the (alleged) end of negotiations, nor the fact that the Koné Saga is (supposedly) resolved. The best part is that Baky has been excused from training this week because he has a note from his doctor. A NOTE FROM HIS FREAKING DOCTOR!* Seriously. I wonder if Antonetti recognized Baky’s handwriting, or if he got a friend to write it to make sure the club were fooled.

Cohen doesn’t make much of an effort to hid his disgust in the L’Equipe interview, but says rather hopefully that Koné’s current behavior isn’t typical of him, and may be down to bad advice. Whether it’s his fault or not, though, Baky’s expected at training on Monday, and if he doesn’t show up he’ll face sanctions from the club, and there will be no chance of him being sold.

I hope to god this really is the end of it and not just another step in the negotiations, if only because the end will free us up to talk about something else. Plus, there are worse things to consider than Rémy and Koné running at defenses together, that’s for damn sure. And, if it’s not over, I hope both clubs at least shut up about the negotiations until they’re sorted, and just tell us when Baky’s packing his bags.

[I've got a big, over-excited post on David Ospina coming tomorrow -- no more Baky, for at least 24 hours. Hopefully.]

ETA: Baky’s issued a statement on his website, and is not happy — he thinks the club have over-valued him (don’t hear that much), insists he’s been wronged, and says his “bitterness is great.” Fantastic.

ETA2: The club’s response.

*I would like everyone to appreciate the self-control I’m showing in not making a “getting excused from Gym” joke here. Thank you.