Nice to be top

Michel  de Vacri

Of course I follow in the Rust Brighton, Fulham and Harlequins but one thing I can say to my fellow correspondents is that I am the only one to support a team that tops its league. This is all the more impressive as we lost our manager Claude Puel to Southampton and our best player Ben Arta to Paris Saint Germain. In 7 games we are unbeaten and our best performance was to beat Monaco 4-0.  New manager  Lucien Fabbri has made some clever signings notably one player whom I am sure you know – Mario Balotelli. The experience of Ben Arta who arrived from Newcastle with not the best of reputations perhaps persuaded the club that Balotelli might do as well for us. The first signs are hopeful. We also signed Dante from Wolfsburg. He made his name as a superb defender with Bayern and already has impressed. We have a good group of youngsters too. On Thursday we have a long away trip to Russia which might make the boys tired for the weekend game v Lorient.

Over here there is far less press intrusion into people’s lives so we are perplexed by the Sam Allardyce story. Surely a manager can check out with other managers he knows and his advisors who attended the meeting the bona fides of those with whom he is supposedly negotiating? It’s never going to look good when you are receiving £3.5m, way above most international managers’ salaries trying to seek another £400,000 and I was not surprised that he resigned “by mutual consent”.  Dealing with the media is an attribute fundamental to English football management but far less so here. This might explain that, apart from Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier, French managers have not really succeeded in the Premier League.

Things have settled down here after the trauma of the July 14th killings. We have a Presidential election in February with Marine Le Pen running second in the polls. Sadly my good friend Ted Dexter and his wife Sue have decided to return to England. He was treasurer of his church and a popular figure sur la Côte with his friend and playing colleague the late Richie Benaud. We shall miss him and I hope the post-Brexit world does not result in more Britons leaving Nice unclear what rights and benefits they will now receive.