Marked for Arnaud Philippe
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules François Aubert out for 29 days
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Tours leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nhoa Sangui 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Louis Boyer at his very best
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guilherme Andrade, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nhoa Sangui's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Louis Boyer to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Nimes, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules François Aubert out for 36 days
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
Jérôme Lopez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tours can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Sep 2026
Tours are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Henri Lacroix again, and this time the name on the line is Chamois Niortais. Tours are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match5 Sep 2026
2‑3 to Valenciennes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Arnaud Philippe
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pierre Robert dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Charles Schmitt out for 40 days
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from US Creteil for Guilherme Andrade 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad24 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match22 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tours and AS Nancy in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Luc David
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luc David, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from Stade Brestois for Marcel Roche 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
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Pierre Robert to Dijon has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Tours with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Jonny Arriba would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jonny Arriba is living that version at Tours, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Marcel Roche at 20 — 7.89
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marcel Roche did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Guilherme Andrade again, and this time the name on the line is US Creteil. Tours are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 5‑4, and it was Louis Boyer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Arnaud Philippe 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tours and US Creteil in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Nobody could get near Jérôme Martin
-
Boardroom
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Tours
-
Market
One of our own: Yann Baron joins the Tours first team