The Tours Chronicle
Match8 Apr 2028
8 matches without a win for Tours
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Tours are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A one-man rearguard from Jérôme Rolland
There were 8 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Federico Nardin puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Mads Bidstrup shuts the door
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Mads Bidstrup 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The team sheet said everything about Gabriel Hubert
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Gabriel Hubert.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Robert Brunet 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Tours and FC Nantes cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. FC Nantes came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
The chances came and went for Luc Carpentier
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
In brief
- Player ratings Off the pace: Marcel Da Silva
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Oumar Sidibé
- Market Patrick Hubert leaves for nothing