Marked for Arthur Caike
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Sep 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Braga, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Neneca says Braga went back on their word
“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.
Market17 Sep 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Market17 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Braga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Braga
Sikou Niakaté 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Braga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Horta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Braga can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Sep 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Braga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Braga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Braga
Rodrigo Zalazar 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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Arthur Caike has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Braga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Horta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“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 Braga know it.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match8 Sep 2029
The run is over for Braga
4 matches without defeat, and then Sporting CP. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Nov 2028
Nobody wins at Braga
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match1 Nov 2028
Cup progress for Braga
A 3‑1 win over Portimonense, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Pedro Ferreira: 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.” Braga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Arthur Caike, 36, rolls back the years — 8.19
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market6 Nov 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Market6 Nov 2028
“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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Braga make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Braga have 3 straight wins of it.
In brief
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Squad
Words exchanged at Braga
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Squad
A row about effort at Braga
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Player ratings
Tiago Leite beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Jan 2028
Cup progress for Brighton
A 2‑0 win over Everton, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Jan 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mark O'Mahony had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Veljko Milosavljević did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Jan 2028
Adam Webster 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 Brighton can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Brighton may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Brighton
Kaoru Mitoma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Brighton did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Buonanotte 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Evan Ferguson. 2‑0 against Hull City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Southampton wanted more than $31.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Jan 2028
Arsenal pay $36.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Brighton have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Supporters turn on the $36.7M sale of Maxim De Cuyper
He is going to Arsenal, the club has $36.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match15 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Brighton
5 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Jan 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 Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
Kaoru Mitoma 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Still nobody has beaten Brighton
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Lewis Dunk
“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.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Brighton, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Brighton
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brajan Gruda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“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 Brighton know it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Pascal Groß
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Veljko Milosavljević is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.