“The easiest signature of my career.” Matheus Costa and Leixões agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Sousa 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.
Gonzalo Groba 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Rúben Semedo.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMiguel Sousa falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Rúben Semedo 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at Leixões 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Miguel Sousa 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.
“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 Vitoria Guimaraes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes 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 Vitoria Guimaraes 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; Vitoria Guimaraes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Telmo Arcanjo 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.
Leixões will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Luccas Paraízo has pre-agreed a move to Vitoria Guimaraes, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Bica signs something — a contract at Leixões or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Position 17, 22 points, and a crowd that arrives already braced. Relegation seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere, and everybody who has lived through one recognises it immediately.
The offer from Leiria for Luccas Paraízo 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Matheus Costa has agreed terms with Vitoria Guimaraes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Silas Andersen 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ricardo Lopes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Casa Pia for Matheus Costa 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 name of Rafael Santos has come up in conversations Leixões were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Miguel Sousa 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões 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.
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.
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leixões have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Silas Andersen 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Rúben Semedo 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Bica signs something — a contract at Leixões or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.