Marked for Raymond Meyer
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Nicolás Rodríguez 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
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Match
Tours and Paris FC take a point apiece
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Jérôme Boyer
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Boardroom
The Tours production line keeps running
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 56 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market15 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Maxime Lopez 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Meyer 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandre Coeff
“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.
Match13 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Nicolás Rodríguez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Joseph Marie: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tours have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market8 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Laurent Blanchard 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Raymond Meyer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Stade Brestois, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Thomas Michel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad1 Nov 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market1 Nov 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nothing got past Maxime Lopez
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Boardroom
The Tours production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Oct 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match23 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Tours
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match23 Oct 2027
A hiding for Tours
Beaten 0‑3 by Monaco, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market25 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match23 Oct 2027
Tours cannot find the net
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Laurent Blanchard 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Raymond Meyer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
Doors closed at Tours
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
Mathieu Henry damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Tours's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tours has to find a result from somewhere.
Match16 Oct 2027
6 matches without a goal for Tours
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market18 Oct 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrian Dabasse
37 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
Tours taken apart
0‑5 to Olympique de Marseille, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match2 Oct 2027
6 matches without a win for Tours
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Tours are no longer polite ones.
Market4 Oct 2027
Maxime Lopez 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandre Coeff and Tours agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
Match2 Oct 2027
Tours cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Meyer 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Inquest at Tours
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2027
Adrian Dabasse damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for Tours
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Laurent Blanchard 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Jacques Joly is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match28 Aug 2027
Stade Lavallois made Tours work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of Laurent Blanchard at his very best
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of Jérôme Boyer at his very best
Marked 8.23. 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
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Pierre Ménard breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Tours have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Laurent Blanchard 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Raymond Meyer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Pierre Ménard out for 67 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Vincent Paul is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Maxime Lopez 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Raymond Meyer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
Karl Madianga damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Raymond Pierre out for 39 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Raymond Meyer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Valenciennes will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Derrick Abu has pre-agreed a move to Tours, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Karl Madianga
32 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Feb 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Tours can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Meyer 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Tours do not lose
11 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
17 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market7 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Tours can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Nicolás Rodríguez 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jérôme Boyer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Thomas Michel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Michel, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Raymond Meyer 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Jacquet 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to RC Strasbourg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tours and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxime Dagorn and Tours agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
5 new faces, and Tours are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market9 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
Tours bow out of the cup
Olympique Lyonnais go through and Tours go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jérôme Boyer takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Jérôme Boyer among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Jérôme Boyer on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Tours and Chamois Niortais.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Jérôme Boyer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Jacques Jacquet 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.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jérôme Boyer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.70. 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.