Before the crucial match against Maccabi Tel Aviv (kick-off Thursday at 8pm CET), Lucien Favre was asked about Nice's transfer window during the pre-match press conference. And in particular about a possible "annoyance" on his part, given the time taken to close certain deals. "Not at all. As I said, the transfer window is very, very hard. It lasts until the end of August. I know that. I have no problems with that. My expectations? It's difficult to say now. It was planned, there are several players who should come. But I repeat, I understand, it's not easy. There are other clubs after certain players, sometimes bigger clubs than us, it's very difficult to compete."

When asked about the "tensions within the club" reported by the press, the Gym coach put things into a sporting context: "There is disappointment, yes. Because you can be disappointed when you lose in Tel Aviv, when you lose in Clermont. But in terms of what you are saying, I have not seen any of that. Maybe there's a lot of pressure because expectations are high, but we all have a very good understanding."

Finally, the Swiss coach made a point of speaking to his audience at the end of his press conference about the quality of his collaboration with Iain Moody, who works as a consultant in the transfer window. "I heard there was something in the press about me and Iain. I get on very well with Iain, in both a human and sporting sense. We have a very good relationship. I also read something about the length of the training sessions. Yes, they can be very long, but every time, the players want to stay for half an hour after the session. That's a good sign too. Even this morning, we had to stop them."