NICE’S manager hit back at Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s brutal criticism by claiming the club’s owner he has “not watched a match all season”.
Ratcliffe bought Nice in 2019 before purchasing a minority stake in Manchester United midway through last season.
The British billionaire has certainly upset many at Old Trafford including fans and staff with his various extreme cost-cutting measures.
But frustrations towards Ratcliffe are not limited to United.
That is because the Ineos chief sparked fury at Nice by revealing he does not like watching them play.
Ratcliffe controversially stated: “I don’t particularly enjoy going to watch Nice because there are some good players.
“But the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited.”
However, the comments prompted a reaction from the man he appointed as manager in the summer.
Franck Haise insisted Ratcliffe does not have a leg to stand on – because he has not even been to a game since the new manager took over.
Haise said: “The article that [the comments] appeared in was a lot more complete than that. But he hasn’t seen a Nice match this season.
“He’s speaking a bit more about what he saw at another time.
“With the people who are here at the club, we are here to make the club progress in order to be even better.”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Man Utd confirm Old Trafford decision with club set to build £2bn 100,000-seater ‘Wembley of the North’ ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6369875618112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]But mindful not to cause a rift with his employer, Haise insisted there was no bad blood between the pair.
He added: “It’s not that serious. We can be annoyed, that’s obvious.
“But is it really worth staying annoyed for a long time?
“We have got to keep working, enjoying ourselves and we have got to be doing the best possible.
“We have to move on and continue on our path.”
Haise will be desperate to prove Ratcliffe wrong come the end of the season.
His Nice side sit fourth in Ligue 1 in a crazy six-team battle for a Champions League place.
PSG are the runaway leaders but Nice are two points adrift of Marseille in second.
The top three are guaranteed a league phase place, with fourth going into qualifying.
Nice have not played in the top European competition since 2017-18 – but have a far stronger chance than United of qualifying through their league finish.
United are slumped down in 13th in the Premier League table – but could get into the Champions League by winning the Europa League.
Ruben Amorim’s men face Lyon in the quarter-finals in April with the winners to face Rangers or Athletic Bilbao in the semis – and potentially a blockbuster final against Tottenham on May 21 in Bilbao.
