129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rio Ave lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rio Ave can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel Teixeira will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rio Ave the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
The dugout8 May 2028
Marlon Gomes loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Marlon Gomes's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rio Ave told Malik Sellouki something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rio Ave lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 12 on 35 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rio Ave is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tamble Monteiro 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 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 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 Rio Ave know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Jaílson
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julien Lomboto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rio Ave the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rio Ave this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sergio Sousa after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Rio Ave 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rio Ave is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matías Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rio Ave can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Amine Rehmi has his answer from Rio Ave; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rio Ave is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rio Ave 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 Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Rio Ave pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Porto? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rio Ave lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Tamble Monteiro 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 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rio Ave can pretend not to have heard.
Matías Moreno 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 Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rio Ave can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giorgos Liavas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pedro Amaral’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rio Ave needing him to play as if none of it matters.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rio Ave lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rio Ave have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel Teixeira will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rio Ave the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Vrousai 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.
1‑2 to Arouca, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Sergio Sousa left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rio Ave will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rio Ave asked and Leixões 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 offer went to Benfica this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.1M — a club that wants Bruno Rodrigues enough to be asked twice.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Add another name to the list: Belenenses have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brandon Aguilera. The answer from Rio Ave has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Rio Ave, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Lusitânia Lourosa for João Tomé was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with Braga is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rio Ave 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.
“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; Rio Ave are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Something was said to Pedro Amaral and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutJaílson has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutOle Pohlmann knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rio Ave will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Rio Ave, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
“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 Rio Ave, and 2 appearances in 41 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Rehmi 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giorgos Liavas signs something — a contract at Rio Ave 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 Rio Ave. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
9 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.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ennio van der Gouw knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eduardo Ribeiro after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutJaílson has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutOle Pohlmann knocks on the manager's door
Player ratingsSaba Samushia beats them one at a time
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Petrasso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Rio Ave, and 2 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Jaílson is on 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 Rio Ave, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 clean sheets from 15 appearances at Varzim. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
4 goals in 17 games at Amarante — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rio Ave updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Rio Ave know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Saba Samushia 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Eduardo Ribeiro to a room that had heard them before.
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 Marios Vrousai is on it.
In brief
The dugoutOle Pohlmann asks for a word with the manager
“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 Rio Ave know it.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Léo Gaúcho wants continental football; whether Rio Ave can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.04, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rio Ave told Marios Vrousai something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Rio Ave game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at União de Santarém runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Eduardo Ribeiro left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Francisco Petrasso is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 Rio Ave, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rio Ave asked and Vitoria Guimaraes 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 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Matías Lacava has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rio Ave have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Miguel Teixeira 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.
“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 Rio Ave, and 2 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rio Ave can pretend not to have heard.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Vrousai 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.
Vitoria Guimaraes will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. João Oliveira has pre-agreed a move to Rio Ave, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Rio Ave asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rio Ave and Benfica, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Miguel Teixeira 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Cezary Miszta'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.
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.
“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; Rio Ave are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 91 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.
0‑1 away to the standard of Hammarby. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Tamble Monteiro 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 Marios Vrousai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rio Ave, another week without a signature from Cezary Miszta.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Brandon Aguilera will call it something else in private.
The offer from Lokomotiv Plovdiv for Rafael Lobato was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Karseladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tamble Monteiro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toronto FC have kept their man, and Rio Ave go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lusitânia Lourosa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at La Equidad is saying, and nobody at Rio Ave is enjoying the guessing.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Vrousai 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Soares is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.