Manu 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Feirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amílcar Silva 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feirense know it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Micael Babo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Júnior signs something — a contract at Feirense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Kiki Silva has written the date down.
Position 3 on 57 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Feirense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 20 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francisco Souza Silva. 2‑0 against Pacos de Ferreira, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Júlio Amorim and Feirense agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Júlio Amorim 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.
“I watch every Feirense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Giresunspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Position 3, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Amílcar Silva 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Feirense is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Feirense know what they have, and so, by now, does 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 Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amílcar Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Felgueiras will replay every second of the added time for a week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carlos Júnior wants continental football; whether Feirense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ricardo Valente 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diogo Pinto. 2‑1 against Felgueiras, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 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.
“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; Feirense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadWords at Feirense training over how hard people work
Carlos Júnior 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Feirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amílcar Silva 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.
At 20 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tiziano Perrotta. 1‑0 against Maritimo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Pedro Ferreira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feirense know it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Frederico Namora
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Moreirense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Feirense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Francisco Souza Silva did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Feirense close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Feirense heard it as anything 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 Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Feirense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Carlos Júnior 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Feirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amílcar Silva 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 phone has started ringing about Jair Monteiro again, and this time the name on the line is Portimonense. Feirense are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Feirense is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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; Feirense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Feirense, another week without a signature from Diogo Pinto.
Júnior Franco 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jair Monteiro is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Francisco Souza Silva has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 2‑0 win over Pacos de Ferreira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Position 8, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
1‑5 to Académico de Viseu, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
6 goals in one match, Carlos Júnior on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Feirense and Académico de Viseu.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amílcar Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Júlio Amorim 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andre Pacheco after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amílcar Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It needed Henrique Pereira to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Lusitânia Lourosa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andre Pacheco chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Feirense will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Francisco Meixedo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Feirense needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Francisco Meixedo signs something — a contract at Feirense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Feirense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Feirense that is a harder question to answer.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Feirense would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jair Monteiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Words at Feirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amílcar Silva 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Feirense, another week without a signature from Jaiminho.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andre Pacheco was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Feirense dressing room was either.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Moreirense go through and Feirense go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The match ball belongs to Carlos Júnior, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Carlos Júnior was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
At 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Ferreira provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 8.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something 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 Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Andre Pacheco could afford to be generous.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Feirense asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andre Pacheco after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feirense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jaiminho’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Feirense needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Nathan Cachorrão has written the date down.
Feirense had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cruzeiro, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Getafe have kept their man, and Feirense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Feirense.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Feirense's travelling support get something back at Chaves
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 3-0 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Frederico Namora has, at Feirense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Feirense had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Emanuel Moreira is back at Feirense, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Feirense asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Francisco Sousa 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.