Derby days make names, and Vedat Muriqi made his against Benfica. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Porto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Porto supporters have already started telling it.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Paulo Simoes could afford to be generous.
Something was said to Jean-Baptiste Gorby and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Porto 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.
Alverca next, and one man in the Porto dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Porto know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Porto that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
19 graduates, from a department now rated 15 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
A side in position 14 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The first defeat in 46 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Tondela; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Pereira 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.
32 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Victor Froholdt scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Borja Sainz 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 had been thinking. Leonardo Vonić 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.
32 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Porto now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Porto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
23 goals in 38 games at Cultural Leonesa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
10 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Diogo Fernandes has been having a lot of them.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Porto has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
Porto paid $1.1M and Casa Pia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The mood at Casa Pia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of André Gomes has come up in conversations Casa Pia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zaidu Sanusi 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 Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kélian Nsona 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mafra have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Everton 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.
50 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Vedat Muriqi takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vedat Muriqi provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Gabri Veiga takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabri Veiga provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Porto have had the benefit of it.
Pedro Rosas 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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 Cassiano is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raúl Blanco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutStefan Obradović is still being punished for one mistake
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia 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 Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nuno Pacheco after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nuno Pacheco kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutAndré Gomes knocks on the manager's door
SquadWords at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Vizela were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zaidu Sanusi 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: Cassiano. 1‑0 against Vizela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casa Pia, another week without a signature from André Gomes.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nuno Pacheco on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pedro Rosas
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.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Pérez, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Raúl Blanco 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcos Pintos and Casa Pia agree another 4 years.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Raúl Blanco 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.
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 André Geraldes is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Santa Clara in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
André Gomes has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Rosas 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nuno Pacheco after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Estrela da Amadora defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
4 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.
Pedro Rosas 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casa Pia told Zaidu Sanusi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nuno 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 Casa Pia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Kotaro Nagata 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Casa Pia have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Benfica next, and one man in the Casa Pia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casa Pia, another week without a signature from Kélian Nsona.
“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 Casa Pia know it.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Blanco 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
5 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.
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 Cassiano is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raúl Blanco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia 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 Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7.64, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Casa Pia had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nuno Pacheco kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 André Geraldes is on it.
Estoril Praia next, and one man in the Casa Pia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Casa Pia can tell you which week it ends in.
Pedro Rosas 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bodo/Glimt is saying, and nobody at Casa Pia is enjoying the guessing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casa Pia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Zaidu Sanusi 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Casa Pia will try again when the window opens; Marco 09 may not be selling by then.
Add another name to the list: Gil Vicente have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ricardo Batista. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Casa Pia have gone to Bodo/Glimt 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casa Pia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casa Pia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Vitoria Guimaraes for André Gomes 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.
Casa Pia offered $2.8M; Benfica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mafra have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
$28.6M on the table at Norwich City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casa Pia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casa Pia have done the hard part with Porto, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Casa Pia asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting André Gomes's mistake
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casa Pia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
America de Cali have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casa Pia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
VfB Stuttgart have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Casa Pia has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casa Pia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Casa Pia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Casa Pia asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Braga for André Gomes 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.
Add another name to the list: Académico de Viseu have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ricardo Batista. The answer from Casa Pia 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.
Something was said to Kélian Nsona and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Casa Pia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia 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 Korede Osundina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejandro González and Casa Pia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutKaíque Rocha knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$6.3M on the table at New York City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Arouca for Ricardo Batista 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.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Casa Pia offered $320.0K; Famalicao said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Casa Pia asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Korede Osundina 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.