Marked for Benoît Richard
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Bruno Robin had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bourg-Peronnas were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Marc Renard is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éder Cavalcante 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Bruno Robin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. 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.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
The big one: Red Star come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Tours will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Telli Siwe
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
So close: Marc Renard’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Osasuna moved on, Marc Renard reports back to Tours, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 2 out at Tours
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
RC Lens wanted more than $250.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éder Cavalcante 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Telli Siwe 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Marc Renard
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Tours ran out of time with AS Nancy. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Tours heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marc Mathieu 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éder Cavalcante 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benoît Richard commits to Tours for another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
Dijon made Tours work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Cléo Mélières is in the works
Tours have made the call to FC Metz. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.