The Tours Chronicle
Market23 Aug 2027
Tours turn down FC Metz for Gabriel Hubert
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Real improvement from Irvyn Lomami at Tours
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Irvyn Lomami is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Benoît Blanc stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benoît Blanc and Tours agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Stéphane Maillard 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Benoît Blanc has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Tours
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market23 Aug 2027
David Vidal steps up from the Tours academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Vidal has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Aug 2027
Tours promote Thomas Le Roux from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Le Roux has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market23 Aug 2027
One of our own: Guillaume David joins the Tours first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Guillaume David is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Mads Bidstrup
- Match Honours even between Tours and Chamois Niortais
- The terraces The spotlight tightens on Gabriel Hubert