Christophe Galtier led Lille to the title but he has stalled at Nice

“It’s too early to say,” was supposedly Chinese leader Zhou Enlai’s response when asked in 1972 if the French revolution, which had occurred 200 years earlier, had been a success. The story is probably apocryphal, with Zhou most likely referring to the French student protests of the late 1960s, but long-term thinkers would offer a similar response now if asked to analyse Lille’s footballing revolution following their shock title win last season under the previously uninspiring Christophe Galtier. His current club, Nice, were expected to push for the title this season, but they have dropped out of Ligue 1’s European places this week, suggesting his revolution may be short lived.

Galter’s newfound managerial aura benefits from strong recency bias. After a decade as an assistant at clubs including Portsmouth, Al-Ain, Aris Soloniki and Lyon, he ascended to his first managerial role at struggling St Étienne in December 2009. Galtier kept the club up and kept his job. Over the next eight seasons, St Étienne became regulars in Europe and even won the Coupe de la Ligue in 2013 but, with their resources and quality dwindling, they soon plateaued.

Following that 2013 peak and the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Borussia Dortmund, Galtier’s greatest feat was achieving consistent results with increasingly minimal backing before slumping to eighth in 2016-17, his final season at the club. During his time at St Étienne, their football became increasingly dour and, in a league characterised by physicality and pragmatism, his aggressively functional side represented Ligue 1 in the extreme.

Galtier joined Lille in December 2017, when they were 18th in the table. They narrowly avoided relegation in his debut campaign before