Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Avellino is saying, and nobody at Maritimo is enjoying the guessing.
Maxime Dominguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Tejón 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.
Nobody at Maritimo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladan Danilović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ernando has written the date down.
Maxime Dominguez 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Leite 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Bamba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonçalo Tabuaço is on it.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Maritimo
Maxime Dominguez 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Leite 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.
The name of Zé Leite keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Maritimo say nothing, which says plenty.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Martín Tejón
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Maritimo would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maritimo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maritimo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Maxime Dominguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Tejón 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Adrián Butzke has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alfonso Pastor signs something — a contract at Maritimo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maritimo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Martín Tejón 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.
A point taken on 89 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.
Mons Bassouamina 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Maxime Dominguez 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.
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.
Maritimo asked and Bari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 22 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zé Leite provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maritimo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zé Leite scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Farense, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Leite 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goncalo Fonseca after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Maritimo is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Maxime Dominguez 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goncalo Fonseca after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Martín Tejón could not do
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maritimo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruan Bonfim is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Leite 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Marked 7.35 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Goncalo Fonseca to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Bamba dropped after a run of poor form
Maritimo have gone to Académico de Viseu with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Pinto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Pereira 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Reis 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonardo Borges is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maritimo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.