Marked for Steven Hall
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Tours know it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yann Bernard in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tours this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match18 Jan 2027
Tours up to position 1
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Henri Maillard has come up in conversations Tours were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Yann Bernard was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henri Le Gall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hilan Hamzaoui Slimani has just signed for Tours, and for once the answer mattered.
Match16 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Bourg-Peronnas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market4 Jan 2027
OGC Nice come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tours did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tours will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Henri Le Gall was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Steven Hall, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Guillaume Martin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
$263.9K on the table at Tours
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to RC Lens to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tours and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Dec 2026
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Tours found something the first half had given no notice of, and AC Ajaccio could not hold what they had.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match26 Dec 2026
Tours make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tours have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Tours are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yann Bernard in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tours this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Henri Le Gall falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match26 Dec 2026
Three points for Tours, 3‑2 the final word against AC Ajaccio in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
The crowd has taken to David Dupuy
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Oct 2026
Tours refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A move Steven Hall would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Steven Hall is living that version at Tours, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henri Le Gall is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Red Star, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
Tours supporters have found a favourite in David Roche
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. David Roche has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Brighton make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Brighton have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ferdi Kadıoğlu and Brighton agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ferdi Kadıoğlu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kaoru Mitoma falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ferdi Kadıoğlu, and the manager let it.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over West Ham United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market12 Oct 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Steven Hall leaves Brighton the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.