Marked for Thomas Le Roux
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces28 Feb 2028
The mood at Tours has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Thomas Le Roux out for 17 days
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Giovanni Daffara: 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.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.25 for the rest of it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
Match26 Feb 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Tours and FC Lorient, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.58, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irvyn Lomami, and the manager let it.
Match26 Feb 2028
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Feb 2028
Aldo Encinas 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Tours
Mads Bidstrup 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 Feb 2028
Daniel Garcia among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Daniel Garcia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Tours and Stade Brestois.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Tours training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stéphane Maillard 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 ratings21 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Mads Bidstrup at his very best
Marked 8.47. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
Match19 Feb 2028
4‑4, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
5.20 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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 Feb 2028
Stéphane Maillard 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.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Still no name above the door at Tours
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Match12 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Garcia. 2‑1 against FC Metz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Mads Bidstrup at his very best
Marked 8.89. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tours.
The terraces14 Feb 2028
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Jérôme Rolland
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
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
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
“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
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
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
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
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.