“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sevilla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rubén Vargas 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sevilla heard it as anything else.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Batrakov 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alverca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alverca can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Braga for Samy Merheg 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.
Samy Merheg 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.
Nobody at Alverca 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Alverca would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alverca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at Alverca, and it is not being withdrawn.
In brief
SquadWords at Alverca training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alverca can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alverca 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.
“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 Alverca, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
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.
0‑1 to Estrela da Amadora, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Matheus Mendes'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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Matheus Mendes knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
11 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.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Samy Merheg, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The deal that would have taken Mateus to Moreirense has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Alverca with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Bastien Meupiyou 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 goals in one match, Bastien Meupiyou on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Alverca and Porto.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Alverca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Micah Hamilton 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bastien Meupiyou 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.
10 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.
Vizela paid $730.0K and Alverca took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Vasco Moreira 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Alverca will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Alverca are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Samy Merheg, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Alverca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bastien Meupiyou 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Alverca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasco Moreira 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.
Benfica held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Alverca answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Alverca who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alverca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Alverca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Micah Hamilton 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Alverca who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alverca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Add another name to the list: Portimonense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Paulo Agostinho. The answer from Alverca has not changed — yet.
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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
SquadWords at Alverca training over how hard people work