“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dinis Rodrigues did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Carlinhos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 The request is on a desk at Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 21 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Oliveirense were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adalberto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mésaque Djú
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Carlinhos 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.
7 goals in one match, Midana Cassamá on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Portimonense and Farense.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adalberto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Portimonense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Vitoria Guimaraes go through and Portimonense go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Reis 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.
Adalberto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Portimonense will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Portimonense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Adalberto 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dinis Rodrigues did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Portimonense will try again when the window opens; Maritimo may not be selling by then.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rafael Soares 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Adalberto 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I watch every Portimonense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Felgueiras runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The clubs have shaken hands with Maritimo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Add another name to the list: Rio Ave have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sébastien Cibois. The answer from Portimonense has not changed — yet.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Portimonense until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Adalberto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
Portimonense asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Adalberto 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Portimonense are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.