OGC Nice have announced that Patrick Vieira has been relieved of his duties as head coach following a fifth-straight defeat in all competition s, 3-2 at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night.
Les Aiglons' run of poor form as taken its toll, with the Côte d'Azur club announcing on Friday morning - following Nice's definitive elimination from the Europa League with a win, a draw and three defeats - that they have opted to part ways with head coach Patrick Vieira, who had been in the job since the summer of 2018.
Final straw
"In a meeting conducted after last night’s match, the Nice Board informed Patrick Vieira of their decision to end their collaboration. The Rouge et Noir club has decided to appoint [former assistant coach] Adrian Ursea as head coach of the club’s professional first team, as of today," read a statement on the club's website. "Patrick Vieira put all his heart and professionalism into his service for OGC Nice over the last two and a half years of their collaboration. The Nice board sincerely thanks the former France international for his commitment and dedication to the development of the club and wishes him every future success in his coaching career."
Vieira steered the club to seventh in 2018-19 and fifth in the truncated 2019-20 campaign, but with five wins, two draws and four losses in the current campaign, Les Aiglons sit in 11th, well below where owner Jim Ratcliffe and club president Jean-Pierre Rivère would like to be considering the investment in the club since INEOS took over in the summer of 2019.
Superb goals and plenty of drama
The timing of the announcement would indicate that the club directors were awaiting the result of Thursday's match before taking a decision, and it seems things could easily have gone the other way given how close the match with Leverkusen was.
The superb contest saw Nice dig deep to level it twice, Hassane Kamara producing a powerful volley from the edge of the area (26') to cancel out former PSG forward Moussa Diaby's sublime opener (22') before substitute Dan Ndoye (47') matched Aleksandar Dragovic's effort (32').
However, the match slipped through Nice's fingers when Leverkusen captain Julian Baumgartlinger produced the most cultured of flick-on headers from a corner to beat Walter Benitez at his near post and seal the win 3-2 (51').
