Marked for Mathieu Chevalier
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Tours
Daniel Carré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thibault Rolland was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Tours game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Podbrezova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout10 May 2027
David Cousin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tours will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Henri Ménard, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
Tours say no — this time
The offer from RC Strasbourg for Patrick Paris 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Nicolas Charles has come up in conversations Tours were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thibault Rolland was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nicolas Collet’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Patrick Huet asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laurent Michel 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aliou Dembélé, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Robert Leroy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Lamine Guèye beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad30 Nov 2026
At 19 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Clermont Foot will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.79 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.14 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Tours know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Daniel Carré 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nicolas Charles scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to AS Nancy, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Collet, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Guillaume Le Goff commits to Tours for another 5 years.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Nicolas Collet is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Tours
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Robert Leroy left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
David Cousin 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joël Ngoya and Tours agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
David Cousin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tours will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
No place for Joël Ngoya in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tours are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market9 Nov 2026
The David Cousin talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tours know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Nicolas Collet
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Tours would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Match9 Nov 2026
Tours in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 23 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tours, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Cousin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Tours
Position 4, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nicolas Collet has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tours will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Robert Leroy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Tours
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from David Cousin
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Patrick Paris, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets5 Oct 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Aboubakar Diaby gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aboubakar Diaby has just signed for Tours, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laurent Michel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.