Nice take a chance on Vieira
“it was tough leaving New York but this was a project i just couldn’t turn down” Patrick Vieira on taking charge of Nice
Perhaps the only surprise about Patrick Vieira’s appointment as the new boss of Nice is that the 42-year-old has opted to leave the powerful City Football Group to take up his first European role as a seniorteam coach.
The former Arsenal midfielder’s relationship with the Abu Dhabi-based business that owns Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City began in 2010 when Vieira joined Man City from Internazionale. After retiring from playing in July 2011 he began his coaching career with a youth-development role at the club, before becoming reserve-team and elite-development-squad manager. He accepted his first senior coaching role in charge of New York City at the start of 2016 and consistently improved the club’s fortunes during his two-and-ahalf years in the United States.
When Swiss coach Lucien Favre opted to leave Nice for Borussia Dortmund at the end of last season, the Ligue 1 club were quick to make a move for Vieira, who earned 107 caps for France and won the World Cup and the European Championship. Vieira signed a three-year contract with Nice and the club’s president, Jean-Pierre Rivere, is delighted to have snagged one of the brightest young managerial talents in the game.
“It’s not a risk giving Patrick the job,” insists Rivere. “We have a real project here and we think he’s the right man to take us forward. Patrick has immense experience as a player and he’s been a coach for a good few years. We hope he can transmit the winning mentality he had as a player to our squad.”
Vieira arrives on the south coast of France with three members of his New York City backroom staff – assistant coaches Kristian Wilson and Christian Lattanzio, and fitness coach Matt Cook.
“I’m very happy to be coming back to France,” said Vieira after signing his contract. “I am really excited and can’t wait to get started. I’ve always followed Ligue 1 while I’ve been away and it’s a competition that’s getting more and more demanding.
“It was tough leaving New York but this was a project I just couldn’t turn down. Everything’s in place here for me to be able to do my job well. It’s about gaining the players’ trust and getting performances out on the pitch.”
Vieira has made it clear that he’s happy with the squad at his disposal for the forthcoming season, despite the fact that Nice lost three of their star performers in the close season. Midfielder Jean Michael Seri moved to Fulham, defender Maxime Le Marchand joined the same club and striker Alassane Plea headed to Borussia Monchengladbach.
“There won’t be many more changes,” says Vieira, who adds: “I’m very happy with the squad.”
One of the new coach’s first issues to resolve, however, is the situation regarding his former Manchester City team-mate, Italian striker Mario Balotelli, who looked to be on his way to Marseille, only for the deal to fall apart at the eleventh hour. Balotelli failed to return to training with Nice on July 2, eventually turning up two weeks late.
Vieira immediately made the forward train on his own, saying this was ”normal” given that the 27-year-old wasn’t “at the same physical level as his team-mates”, and suggesting ”the most important thing is that he makes up for lost time”.
Having to deal with such a notoriously temperamental player means Vieira’s first major European coaching job looks like being a testing one.
It will be interesting to see how the new man performs back in his home country in a professional capacity for the first time since he left Cannes for Milan as a player fully 23 years ago.