The Tours Chronicle
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marc Barbier runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 47. 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
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richard Poirier
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tours lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Richard Poirier asks to leave Tours
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Louis Prévost 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Marc Barbier
At 23 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Jean-Luc Philippe the difference as Tours beat Valenciennes
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean-Luc Philippe. 1‑0 against Valenciennes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rémy Simon 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Léo Schwechlen
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léo Schwechlen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jean-Luc Philippe was the difference for Tours
Marked 7.89. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
In brief
- Market Paolo Guerra linked with a move away
- Market Tours bring in Néhémie Lurika on loan
- Market Tours bring in Yannick Dodo on loan