Marked for Mathieu Charpentier
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
No mercy from Tours
Valenciennes will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Tours were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.30 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market7 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to RC Lens this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$1.5M was the most the club would pay and RC Strasbourg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market7 Sep 2026
AC Ajaccio pay $280.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Tours
Aliou Dembélé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Marchand 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Rémi Renard beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CR Belouizdad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Tours have gone to RC Strasbourg 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from Clermont Foot for Mathieu Charpentier 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.
Squad31 Aug 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
$510.0K for Erwan Adonis, and Tours supporters approve
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Erwan Adonis from RC Strasbourg for $510.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rémi Chevalier 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nimes 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Marcel Dupuis at 21 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marcel Dupuis did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Paris Saint-Germain, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Tours
Marcel Dupuis 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Tours
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rémi Chevalier 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Tours asked and Stade Lavallois said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 17 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.