Marked for Raymond Robert
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
$25.7M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
5‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Livorno had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from Arezzo for Raymond Fernandez 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $25.7M sale of Emmanuel Laurent
He is going to Union Berlin, the club has $25.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match29 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Tours and Clermont Foot, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
$3.5M — a new record at Tours
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑1 against AS Nancy, and it could have been more.
Market24 Aug 2026
RC Lens 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Raymond Robert takes the afternoon — 8.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Raymond Robert provided it, and the 8.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Nantes is saying, and nobody at Tours is enjoying the guessing.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Emmanuel Laurent again, and this time the name on the line is Union Berlin. Tours are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marcel Adam, 33, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Édouard Picard pops up at the right end — 7.95
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
7‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Tours and FC Nantes have settled on $2.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Emmanuel Laurent, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.6M — a club that wants Alexis Mirbach enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Édouard Picard 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 10.00 — 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
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tours have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sampdoria had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$3.5M on the table at Toulouse FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Tours have gone to FC Nantes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Laurent and Tours agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Tours
Édouard Picard and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Raymond Robert 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Tours asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Dijon have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jean-Luc Aubert. The answer from Tours has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Dijon, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Roger Moreau at 20 — 8.03
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Moreau did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Tours
Édouard Picard 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
7 goals as Tours and Dijon go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Tours and Dijon, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Robert 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Tours asked and VfB Stuttgart said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.