Football Season Guide

Tours have once again endured a difficult summer, with a new coach in the dug-out and several of last season's star performers moving on to help the club's fragile finances. They finished a creditable ninth last season under Marco Simone, but the Italian has departed and has been replaced by Fabien Mercadal. The new coach, who turned down the chance to manage relegated Creteil before accepting the switch to the Stade de la Vallee du Cher, arrives from Dunkerque having done a good job in the third tier in recent seasons. He will be eager to impress but Tours have sold midfielders Saif-Eddine Khaoui and Baptiste Santamaria to top-flight sides Marseille and Angers respectively. Regulars last season, Samuel Bouhours and Laurent Agouazi have joined other sides in Ligue 2 in Reims and Niort. Young forward Chris Bedia has also departed, agreeing a transfer to Charleroi in Belgium. This is in keeping with the ways things have gone for a number of years at Tours, who have regularly had to sell talented youngsters just to survive but have remained a competitive force in the second tier despite that harsh reality, and despite a high turnover of coaches. Mercadal has overseen some new signings already, but Daouda Konate hardly kicked a ball for a Paris FC side who finished bottom of Ligue 2 last season while Malian forward Cheikh Fantamady Diarra was also relegated with the capital club. Mayron De Almeida is an unknown quantity as he arrives from Belgium but the midfielder Ousseynou Cisse is returning to a division he knows well after a spell in Spain with Rayo Vallecano. Other talents who remain on the books include Bingourou Kamara, but the France under-21 international goalkeeper could at the time of writing be the next player to leave. with Lille among the clubs being linked with him. In such a context this season will have to be about survival first and foremost for Tours.