Marked for Thomas Bernard
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces26 Apr 2027
Supporters organise against the Tours board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match26 Apr 2027
Tours sink to position 13
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Tours
Yves Deschamps and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fady Khatir 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A last season at home is what Samuel Giménez is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
85% of the income goes out in wages at Tours
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Mar 2027
Supporters organise against the Tours board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match29 Mar 2027
Tours are in real trouble now
Position 13, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Tours
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Tours is running low.
Market29 Mar 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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Alexandre Coeff 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raymond Henry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 89% of the Tours income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Giménez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Mar 2027
Olivier Adam has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tours they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Tours
Yves Deschamps and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fady Khatir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Everybody at Tours saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Banfa Diakité, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Guillaume Aubry is on it.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
The Thomas Bernard rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Tours would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Samuel Giménez has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Tours's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tours has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match26 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Tours
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tours can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Henry 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.10 on the card, and the Tours support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Thomas Bernard at 18 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thomas Bernard did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Julien Dupuy: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tours have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 18 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Raymond Henry 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yves Deschamps slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yves Deschamps is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with US Creteil leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tours people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Tours's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tours has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
Tours cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Bernard 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Emmanuel Dubois was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Tours dressing room was either.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Valenciennes defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Squad14 Sep 2026
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sébastien Cibois
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tours lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Angers SCO keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Tours until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from JS Saoura for Olivier Adam was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Emmanuel Bernard to Clermont Foot has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Tours with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Bernard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Sampdoria 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $529.0K — a club that wants Bissenty Gomis enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Tours offered $490.0K; Le Havre AC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thomas Bernard 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Tours
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Yann Poirier 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.