A year ago, Nice fought fiercely with OL to recruit Christophe Galtier, champion of France with LOSC. Today, the Gym has no regrets to see him go to PSG.
Crowned best coach in the French championship after his national title obtained with LOSC against the all-powerful Paris Saint-Germain, Christophe Galtier had become the most courted technician in France. Olympique Lyonnais were pushing to make him the successor to Rudi Garcia, while Nice and its ambitious owner INEOS wanted him to launch their project. In the end, it was therefore the Gym that was able to seduce Galtier. A big blow which had aroused enormous enthusiasm among the Aiglons, delighted at the idea of seeing such a leader of men build the first stage of the Nice rocket.
A year later, the OGCN is only waiting for one thing: for Galtier to sign with PSG to install Lucien Favre on the throne. Why such a turnaround after only one year of collaboration? On paper, Nice finished the 2021/2022 season in fifth place and qualified for the Europa League Conference. After finishing the previous exercise in ninth place, the Gym may have hoped for better, but there is progress. Except that Nice morning gave us the details of several episodes which ended up making Galtier a less and less appreciated man within the Gym. It all started with a tense 2021 summer transfer window.
Galtier has clashed with almost everyone
Internally, Galtier criticizes this recruitment campaign. Besides that, the Nice coach is pushing to recruit Calvin Stengs (bought 13.5 M€ from AZ Alkmaar) while at the club, several people think that the Batavian does not have the profile to play on the wing like Galtier wants it. Result: 11 starts only in L1. Then, the daily explains that the coach was blamed “a lack of consideration” as well as a “abusive culture of secrecy around his shots”. To illustrate his point, Nice morning indicates that Galtier has done everything to cultivate this secrecy by demanding portals and walls around the pro sector. And that’s not all, since young people from the training center were also asked to “pull the curtains during training sessions”. Galtier too paranoid?
The newspaper finally concludes by indicating that relations between the parties concerned have continued to deteriorate from the second half of the season. With more transfer window stories. The winter campaign (Bilal Brahimi) is considered very insufficient by the Galtier clan. Then come the spades between the coach and Julien Fournier, the sports director of the Gym. The latter will also end up publicly settling his accounts with the former Lille resident on June 9 in the columns of The Team. Cold with his collaborators, Galtier will also end up being cold with his locker room. In addition to complicated relations with Mario Lemina and Jean-Clair Todibo, the defeat in the final of the Coupe de France against FC Nantes (0-1), when the Gym was the big favorite, will widen the gap a little more within of the locker room. “He put a nice mess in the group”even indicates a player of the team to Nice morning. A chain of events which therefore led President Jean-Pierre Rivère to record the departure of Galtier. A record that is a stain for a coach, even if the latter still managed to hit the jackpot with an announced signing at PSG.
