Marked for Mathieu Pérez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Dec 2026
Tours are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Tours do not lose
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.39 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Mathieu Pérez 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
7.81, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Tours had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad21 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
Tours win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Nimes will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Tours do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.38 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad14 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean-Luc Morin. 2‑1 against Nimes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jean-Luc Morin 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Tours make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Jean-Luc Morin at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Tours do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Sébastien Durand at his very best
Marked 8.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jérémie Lioka named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jérémie Lioka is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match31 Oct 2026
Honours even between Tours and Dijon
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
The stands have heard the Sébastien Durand talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Tours would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tours will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Oct 2026
Tours up to position 1
29 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Tours right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Mathieu Pérez 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Tours, 1‑0 the final word against Red Star in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Sébastien Durand was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tours will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Sep 2026
Jean-Luc Morin wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Tours hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Mathieu Pérez 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
23 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match12 Sep 2026
Tours share the spoils with Nimes
A 1‑1 draw with Nimes leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Tours man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Jean-Luc Morin was the best thing in any of them.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Sébastien Durand
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Philippe signs something — a contract at Tours or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tours will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Tours, 3‑2 the final word against Valenciennes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.47 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Vidal, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tours will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from Las Palmas for Daniel Leclerc 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Jean-Luc Morin 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
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Tours
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dijon paid $250.0K and Tours took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: David Louis joins the Tours first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Louis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcel Charpentier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to US Creteil, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.