Marked for David Da Silva
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 Feb 2027
Tours up to position 2
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market1 Feb 2027
Lipe Veloso 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Tours say no — this time
The offer from US Creteil for Jérôme Rolland 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.
Market1 Feb 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 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Rémi Gautier 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Rémi Gautier 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Robert 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market18 Jan 2027
Tours have made Jean Robert available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Match16 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Aldo Encinas: 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Rémi Gautier 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jean Robert 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Jan 2027
Sochaux left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tours, and 0 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tours, another week without a signature from Denis-Will Poha.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gabriel Słonina 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Robert 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Tours do not lose
6 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 Sep 2026
Rémi Gautier gets it from the manager
“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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tours, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.66, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Honours even between Tours and Nimes
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Luc Carpentier takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luc Carpentier provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Luc Carpentier’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Da Silva, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 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 Luc Carpentier was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
Rémi Dupuis 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Gabriel Hubert has come up in conversations Tours were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Gabriel Hubert 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jean Robert 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luc Carpentier, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Tours and AS Nancy cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. AS Nancy came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market24 Aug 2026
Tours have made David Da Silva available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.