‘We expect more’ – OGC Nice signings underwhelm | OneFootball

By their own admission, it was a difficult transfer window for OGC Nice, who missed out on certain targets and who lacked the means to strengthen, despite selling Evann Guessand for a fee north of €30m.

That is not to say that there weren’t signings. There were. Isak Jansson, Yehvann Diouf, Charles Vanhoutte, Kevin Carlos, Kojo Peprah Oppong, Salis Abdul Samed, Juma Bah, and Tiago Gouveia all arrived for a combined fee of just over €30m.

But thus far, many have failed to impress. Vanhoutte is the only unequivocal success story in the opening weeks of Nice’s season. And it has been a difficult start to the campaign for Le Gym, who sit 12th in Ligue 1 after five matches (three defeats, two wins), and who were knocked out of UEFA Champions League qualifying at the first hurdle at the start of August.

Nice then lost the first game of their UEFA Europa League campaign, against AS Roma (1-2) on Wednesday. With recruits struggling to perform, Haise didn’t shy away from admitting his disappointment.

Carlos a symbol of Nice’s difficult transfer window

“Saying that we expect more, there is no problem with that, of course, but it goes for other players, too. It isn’t just the signings,” he began in a press conference attended by Get French Football News.

He added, “The price doesn’t mean everything, but we expect more, yes […] but we can’t write up a report on 24th September.”

Among the disappointments has been Kevin Carlos, bought for €6m from Basel. The centre-forward has failed to register a goal or an assist in his opening five matches for the club. For Haise, there were mitigating circumstances for the Spaniard against Roma. “What we lacked was more presence around him, in terms of second balls,” said the Nice manager, who did, nonetheless, float the hypothesis of playing without a recognised No.9, with both he and Terem Moffi under-performing. Carlos, however, risks becoming the symbol of a wider malaise regarding Nice’s summer dealings, especially if there aren’t improvements in the coming weeks.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Nice