The Tours Chronicle
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jérôme Carpentier damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market21 Jun 2027
Tours turn down Olympique Lyonnais for Christophe Roger
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Real improvement from Pierre Huet at Tours
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pierre Huet is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Khalis Merah 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 targets21 Jun 2027
No deal for Amal Boura at that price
Tours offered $110.0K; Monaco 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Patrick Lucas 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Michel Vidal
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market21 Jun 2027
The Émile Schmitt question follows Tours around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Émile Schmitt’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Romain Padovani 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.
In brief
- Market The shop window has Hendricks Cakin in it
- The dugout Sékou Doucouré has been promised minutes
- The terraces Supporters make their feelings known about Christophe Roger