The Tours Chronicle
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Yann Cousin, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Diogo Ferreira 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Nobody could get near David Collet
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Laine 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Émile Paul 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A late step up for Noa Boutin
At 24 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Honours even between Tours and Red Star
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market13 Sep 2027
The Lucas Silva question follows Tours around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas Silva’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market13 Sep 2027
Laurent Masson leaves for nothing
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Laurent Masson leaves Tours the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
In brief
- Market Pierre Bonnet leaves for nothing
- Market Tours put Maxime Dagorn up for sale
- Boardroom Tours keep producing them