Olympique Gymnaste Club Nice Côte d'Azur "Today is a special day as we welcome a new manager to our team.
A man who needs no introduction, let me present Mr. Zinedine Zidane"
I had the privilage of representing this nation in the field, and win honours of the highest value. France is a country of passionate people, one of those passions are football. Football is my passion.
This is the reason why I chose to resign from my director post at Real Madrid, to get closer to the pitch once more, and while I can't do that as a professional player any more, I possess the knowledge, experience and passion, to do so as a manager.
That is the reason I have chosen to accept the offer from OGC Nice, to coach them from now on, and work with them to take them to the top of France, and onward.
I have played at the very highest level, in France, in Italy and in Spain, and I think it's easy to see that the French league has fallen behind the very best. We have a lot of great talent here, up and coming players that'll bloom if given enough time and nurturing. I intend to make sure they get as much of that as possible. I want OGC Nice to be a club where talented players from France, and the rest of the world, wants to play, because they know this is where they'll grow to compete with the very best.
The passion of the fans, of the players, the joy of winning, the emotional force you feel as you stand in a stadium full of screaming fans, this is why I love football.
As I inspect the squad, watching the players at training and researching a bit on how they've done in earlier seasons, asking my staff about their thoughts and ideas, I try to get an idea of the squads personality and ambitions.
To get such a large group of players to play, live and act in harmony is no easy task, but it's my task and I'll do my best to accomplish the very best.
Some players are standing out as amazing athletes, Renato Civelli, a central defender who's not the fastest or most agile player out there, is an intimidating player to be up against standing at 193cm and weighing in at 89kg.
Abraham Guie Guie, a swift striker with an exploding acceleration, gives us the possibility to play deep balls since he'll be able to outrun many defenders.
Some players are more technically gifted like Anthony Mounier, a left winger with the ability to dribble past his opponent with a nice first touch and great acceleration.
Fabián Monzón, with a terrific left foot he can be a real danger from both the penalty spot as well as on free kicks.
We have a good squad with capable players on every position and our goal this season is to stay clear of a relegation battle and get a safe spot in the league.
So I started a new, and to me, more interesting story and I hope someone might like it atleast.
We are going in to this season with absolutely no excessive budget at all, no money for transfers and our wage budget is already met.
This limits what I'm allowed to change, just yet, but I believe we already have a good enough squad to be able to reach our goals this season. We have some games to play now on the pre-season to get everyone together and in shape, and first up is Bröndby from Denmark.
They're not a bad side in the slightest, and have many players who would be challenging for a spot here if things were different. Since it's our first game of the season, I want the players to get a feel of the ball, show themselves and the team off a little, impress me and start to get their stamina and shape back after the off season.
We played well, epsecially in midfield, today. We kept the ball within the team for most of the time, and created more chances then our opponents. I think the players managed to keep their attack up pretty well throughout the game, considering we got an early score and a second goal during a time which we dominated. I'm glad to see that none of the players started slacking off and relax just because we had a lead, since this wasn't a game where I wanted to see a good win, but a good performance.
Everyone played decent without anyone really standing out, I'll give them a passing grade ateast.
Yannick Djaló - Man of the first match
Next were a game against French SR Colmar, a team somewhere down in the ranking system, in the National to be exact, the third league from the top. A weaker team than Bröndby on paper most definetly, but that doesn't tell me much. As none of the players are in shape yet, and my new training routines just getting started, I'm well aware of the fact that there are many new things at once here for the players, and I now that usually consistancy is a good thing, soo this might rattle them up a bit. In the long run though, I do it this was as I think we'll benefit from it in the end.
We played decent once more, most of our passes hit their targets, we created a bit too few chances but that can be worked on. SR Colmar did a good job defending themselves and also manage to score one in every half. The own goal was due to a bad move in Civelli's part, not really having any controll of the ball when he tried to clear it out after a free kick, instead the ball bounced off him and in to the goal.
The penalty was a bit odd and was given after we had won the ball back, when they tried to grab it off Monzón's feet, there was a struggle where the referee saw something I didn't but these things happen and you have to accept them as a part of the game.
Team Meeting
After two game I want to say you've done a good job soo far, working on your fitness and teamwork. I am new here and soo are a few of my ideas, I'm glad we have some time atleast to try to make everything come together before we start playing games that are really important. The first game against Bröndby was the tougher one on paper and you did a good job scoring twice against them. Yannick Djaló, glad to see you starting to settle in nice and quickly, a good goal and also a good performance with many good runs out there on the right wing. I like to see how you're always trying to make yourself passable, moving around, never getting static, some real good stuff.
