Marked for David Roche
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Dec 2026
Tours up to position 1
43 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Tours right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Henri Le Gall 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Tours and Chamois Niortais, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for Tours, 4‑2 the final word against Chamois Niortais in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Roche 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Yann Bernard
13 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 54. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matthieu Cuirassier is living that version at Tours, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nimes made Tours work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Dec 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Yann Bernard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
David Roche was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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
David Roche 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henri Le Gall 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Thomas Renard’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tours.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Thomas Renard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$263.9K on the table at Tours
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Loan watch7 Dec 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 17 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Robert Roche 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Joseph Blanc
“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.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“I did not go to RC Lens to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tours and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Oct 2026
Tours refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A move Steven Hall would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Steven Hall is living that version at Tours, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henri Le Gall 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Red Star, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
Tours supporters have found a favourite in David Roche
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. David Roche 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marc-Olivier Kehi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Robert Roche 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Tours. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mathieu Blanc. 1‑0 against Bourg-Peronnas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jérôme Mathieu damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Henri Le Gall 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Joseph Blanc
“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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Thomas Renard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match10 Oct 2026
No time for Sochaux to settle
The goal that put Sochaux ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Tours equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
7 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jérôme Mathieu damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match16 Sep 2026
Tours through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Olympique Lyonnais, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match16 Sep 2026
Noan Géraux wins it after the whistle should have gone
117 minutes played. Noan Géraux found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Olympique Lyonnais went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and David Roche takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Roche provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Noan Géraux, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tours
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Renard 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
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 49. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Yann Bernard takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yann Bernard provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Aug 2026
Vis Pesaro come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tours did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yann Bernard 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Henri Le Gall 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.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
David Roche was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Henri Le Gall knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tours, and both men came out saying it was fine.