•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.

Please help, French-speakers. I can’t find anything about the threatened strike in English, and trying to figure something this complicated out through Google Translate is bound to end in disaster. My understanding, superficial as it is, is that if the LFP go through with their plans to give club presidents an absolutely majority on their board, the UNPF are threatening to strike the following weekend. If the strike happens, there (theoretically) won’t be any matches during October 24-26. Is that close to what’s going on?

Though this is a L1 and L2-wide issue, it’s turning up a lot in the context of Nice because a)Lionel Letizi is vice-president of the UNPF, and b)Maurice Cohen seems to be the only club president speaking out loudly against the strike. According to Cohen, if the UNPF go through with the strike, he’ll both send out academy players against Bordeaux (no word on who they’ll play if, you know, there’s a strike and no one from Bordeaux shows up) and dock Nice players 25% of their salaries for the month. Though no one else actually seems to be talking like he is, Cohen claims to only be speaking the party line, and that all the other club presidents agree with him. Letizi, meanwhile, is Letizi: Quiet and thoughtful in supporting the possibility of a strike but hoping it doesn’t come to that.

Alright, so here are my questions, French-speakers, and those familiar with the labor situation in French football: What are the chances of a strike actually happening and, if it does, will it have any effect at all on the LFP, or will they just become more sure that club presidents need to run things? Any other thoughts are welcome, as well, about evil socialists or blood-sucking owners — whatever you’ve got works for me.

I thought I was over the Lyon match, but I just watched the Inside documentary at ogcnice.tv and am once again deeply depressed, albeit what I suspect is a very girly way — the rage is gone, and now I’m just really, really sad for all of them, especially poor Letizi. What a nightmarish thing to stomach, especially when you’re totally impotent to right such an obvious wrong — one that, to make matters worse, has been officially acknowledged. Jesus.

There’s a well-established history of referee corruption in Italy but now, generally, where awful calls are made in favor of the big clubs, it’s credited to a “psychosis” whereby, summarized very simplistically, officials bow to an internalized belief that the big clubs are probably better anyway, and deserve the benefit of the doubt. I’m assuming a variation on that is what happened on Saturday, but I gotta say it doesn’t make it any easier to take, particularly with all of France — press and otherwise — seemingly believing Lyon are routinely favorite by officials. (Take out “Lyon” and replace it with either “Inter” or “Juve,” and you’ve got the subject of at least a dozen articles published each Serie A season.)

And Aulas‘ self-righteous objection to L’Equipe’s description of the match as “stolen” would be hilarious if it wasn’t so offensive. When that sort of things happens to your advantage, you keep your mouth shut and your head down, and just be thankful, particularly when your player essentially admitted to diving for the free kick that was the first goal.

Antonetti raised the issue of replays, which is getting some play — including in the national assembly — because of the multiple acknowledged errors last weekend, but one imagines that, like it always does, the talk will die down once there are a few fairly clean rounds. He and Cohen both said after the match that it’s getting hard to believe in the game anymore, but the reality of life is that shit happens. It’s just a pity that, in football, seems to happen to the small clubs more often.

*deep breath*

Ok, I’m done. Not talking about it anymore. Really. Moving on.

I’m traveling and working and won’t be able to get a report up until Tuesday (which is probably just as well, since if I wrote it now, you’d get a long piece comparing Italian and French referees, mixed with a lot of mooning over Cyril #1 and being sent off on principle), but until then there’s this, which hurts a lot but is worth watching to see Cohen melting down, and Letizi being epic class at the end.*

Or, if you prefer your video with less football and more disgust, you’ll find Rool here, doing everyone’s heart a bit of good.

*I say that based entirely on Letizi’s expressions and body language, since I can’t understand a damn word he says. If he’s swearing a blue streak and threatening violence, do let me know.

Auxerre 0-1 Nice
But: Yahia (29è) pour Nice

Auxerre: Riou – Hengbart, Coulibaly, Grichting, Mignot – Pedretti (c), Dudka (Niculae, 46è), Chafni, Lejeune – Quercia (Oliech, 23è), Jelen

Nice: Letizi – Diakité, Yahia, Kanté, Jeunechamp (Gace, 73è) – Echouafni (c), Faé, Hellebuyck – Traoré (Coulibaly, 75è), Rémy, Bamogo (Modeste, 85è)

[Sunday's Jour de foot is here; Nice highlights start at about 11:30]

* * *

God damn — who would have thunk it? A shutout away from home, the lone goal and MOTM performance from a forgotten central defender who spent last season as fourth choice at best, and had scored just once in the last five years. Wow.

Obviously, the moment we dare to engage in any optimism it’ll all come crashing down around our heads, but the result is nevertheless exciting, particularly in light of how unexpected it is. Granted, Auxerre are not exactly powers, but Nice never win away, particularly without two starting defenders, and with a keeper who’s been erratic at best during the last month or so. But the defense hung in there, despite being under a lot of pressure in the first half, and Letizi survived as well, making at least one good save and dodging the penalty bullet when Lejeune put his spot-kick wide.

Yahia, by all accounts, was absolutely immense, and not just on the goal (in the grades I’ve seen for the match, he got several eights) — if nothing else, his performance will have assured Antonetti that there’s no reason to rush the surely exhausted Apam back for next week. Also strong, for the third week in a row, was Bamogo, who hit the bar with a very intelligent chip, is playing with immense confidence, and is getting closer and closer to scoring. It sounds as if Rémy was less consistently a factor than he has been thus for this season, but his ability to create with the ball at his feet means he’s always got potential to change the game.

Antonetti, while not blown away by the intelligence of his team’s play, was legitimately pleased with their collective attitude — it’s easy not to expect much from yourself when excuses aplenty are handed to you before the game even kicks off, and it’s fantastic to see that his motley crew are committed to fighting (even if it means fouling the shit out of the opposition, which seems to have been a key tactic the last two matchdays).

Sixth place, just a point off of first — mark down the date, kids, we’re unlikely to see this sort of table again any time soon.

Also: The video version of a new, weekly, All Nice, All The Time radio show is up on the official website. The guest for week one, as one might expect, was Mr. Maurice Cohen, and there’s also a post-mortem on the match.

•Sports.fr just ran a short but typically positive interview with Chouf, who admits he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about the transfer market, but is matter-of-fact about how things work at Nice. Also, he compares his old man self to fine wine, suggesting that he’s improved with age. Damn right.

•After Sportsboy asked about it in the comments, I’m working on getting a post together about the stadium situation in Nice. Until then, though, maybe Maurice Cohen’s comments can tide us over: He’s blaming the “infrastructure” for the club’s inability to land the desperately needed strikers, claiming that two or three players from “big European clubs” turned down transfers for that reason. Presumably part of the idea here is to put pressure on the new mayor of Nice to help push the new stadium plans through, but it’s also handy for Cohen to have an external scapegoat on which to place all responsibility for his failure to land players — if the ground is the problem, he’s not done a thing wrong. (He also says Tenorio — thought to cost about €5 million — is too rich for Nice’s blood, which other sources have been saying lately, as well. Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess.)

•Cedric Kanté’s contract runs out at the end of this season, and so far the club — lousy with central defenders, no matter what you think of their quality — have thus far shown no interest in keeping him around beyond that time. As a result, he’s already thinking about moving on to “a more upscale club.” Alrighty then. I wonder where he thinks he’ll find more playing time. (He’s not, of course, focusing on it — right now the season is the priority: His goals are a)to stay up, and b)not to get hurt.)

•Also, for the French-reading detail fiends among you, the financial tally sheet from 2006-2007 was recently posted in a Nice forum — at the end, the club were in the red by about €2600. It’ll be interesting to see last season’s when it comes out, one hopes there will have been some sort of positive financial impact of challenging for Europe, rather than fighting for survival.

Friendly against ASSE tonight; will report on that tomorrow.

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.

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.

•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.