He also returns to a club that is in a much different state to where he left it. After leaving Nice to join Dortmund at the end of the 2017/18 season, INEOS purchased the club the following summer. Unlike during his previous spell as manager, Favre will be backed by significant resources. Over his seasons only €41.55m was spent on incomings, whilst during last season alone, €55m was spent on new players and in the four seasons since his departure, the club have invested €164.43m in improving their playing squad.
He also returns to Ligue 1 with an unblemished record. Although Favre was sacked by Dortmund after a heavy 5-1 loss to relegation-threatened Stuttgart midway through the 2020/21 season, hindsight adjuges his spell in the Bundesliga to be more successful than originally thought. Bar Champions League winning coach Thomas Tuchel’s 2.12 points-per-game (PPG) record, the last most successful manager of the German side was Horst Buhtz, who managed the side for just 150 days in 1976. It must be noted that Jürgen Klopp, who managed the club for nearly three times the amount of games that Favre did, was working in a strikingly different context and still boasted a 1.9 PPG record, just below Favre’s 2.01. Crucially, the Liverpool manager also delivered silverware.
Since his departure from Dortmund, the club has failed to rival Bayern Munich for the title, and that is despite boasting significant firepower in the form of Marco Reus, Erling Braut Haaland and Jadon Sancho. His successor Edin Terzić held the manager’s job for fewer than 200 days, whilst Marco Rose was sacked at the end of the 2021/22 season having presided over an underwhelming second-place finish (eight points behind Bayern Munich), a Champions League group stage exit followed by a surprise Europa League exit to Rangers and a defeat to St. Pauli in the round of 16 of the DFB-Pokal. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Although nicknamed “the brain” due to his tactical knowledge of the game, he isn’t as philosophically ingrained into playing just one system, one way. There is a level of adaptation to the tools at his disposal as well any other circumstance or context that would necessitate a change in plan. It is here that the contrast with Galtier is most striking.
Although the technicalities of Favre’s playing style are known to only a privileged few, it can be fairly assumed that he will propose a more expansive form of football than Galtier. Gone will be the 4-4-2 that the Frenchman imposed, and which was ill-suited to the current crop of players at the club. “We like the way that he evolves his teams and it corresponds perfectly with the vision we have at INEOS, in terms of the style of play that we want at OGC Nice,” said Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Evolution from last season’s often disjointed displays is needed and has been a long time coming. It’s not just Galtier. Although Patrick Vieira has gone on to flourish at Crystal Palace, his brand of football didn’t inspire the Nice faithful and neither did Adrian Ursea’s; the Romanian, who succeeded the former Arsenal captain, only took charge of 30 games at the club.
