French Ligue1 side, Nice, have parted ways with their manager, Patrick Vieira. This comes after their latest defeat and eventual exit from the Europa League competition on Thursday night.
The defeat on Thursday night in the hands of Bayer Leverkusen, was their fifth straight defeat in all competition.
The Patrick Vieira led side, are currently 11th on the Lique1 table, after just 11 games. This is clearly a contrast to their performance last season, where they finished 5th. And although it is still too early to start pressing the panic button, the Nice board have clearly seen enough of Patrick Vieira and his experiment with the team, which somehow, is one of their worst starts to a season.
Nice went into Thursday’s visit of Bayer Leverkusen with slim hopes of progressing to the Europa League round of 32, and their 3-2 defeat to the Germans mathematically confirmed their exit from the competition.
According to L’Equipe’s Bertrand Latour, Nice have decided to sack the Arsenal legend following their disappointing start to the campaign.
Local Nice publication Nice Matin also reports that Vieira has been sacked after a meeting with the club’s leaders in the aftermath of the game. The outlet reports that coaches Adrian Ursea and Frédéric Gioria will oversee the first team until a new manager is appointed.
Pressure had mounted on the 44-year-old leading up to Thursday evening’s contest, with Get Football News France reporting that the Nice team bus was blocked by ultras as it made its way to the ground.
The small handful of ultras momentarily blocked the exit of the bus, that was travelling to the Allianz Riviera stadium, from leaving the club’s training base for the European tie. The delay was short and the bus was able to move on.
Vieira was appointed in 2018 and his contract with the club was set to expire in June 2021, before his sacking this morning.