Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luís Gomes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Porto B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 7.13 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoan Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Tiago Silva
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tiago Silva has come out of that comparison in the side, and Porto B have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Porto B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Cardoso Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 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.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Trofim Melnichenko 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 goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Cláudio Ramos now has 50 of them across 354 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Tiago Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dario Špikić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Porto B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
At 21 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.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Porto B have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Position 3 and 39 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Cardoso Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 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.
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 B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoan 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Porto B people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Cardoso Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 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.
Martim Cunha 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 Yoan Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
“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.
The offer from Braga for Vasco Sousa 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tiago Silva 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Cardoso Varela has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The name of Vasco Sousa has come up in conversations Porto B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Amora tried to reorganise, Porto B did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Beaten 4 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cardoso Varela did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Position 3, 30 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mafra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Porto B know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Porto B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martim Cunha signs something — a contract at Porto B or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Played out of position, hooked on the hour, asked to be somebody he is not — the details vary and the mood does not. Porto B have a player doing his work under protest.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cardoso Varela provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 23 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.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Porto B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
Tiago Silva 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 goal that put Tondela ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Porto B equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Up for the corner, and Vasco Sousa delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Vasco Sousa scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
At 23 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Vasco Sousa has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Porto B. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Estrela da Amadora? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martim Cunha signs something — a contract at Porto B or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
“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 B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Porto B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Porto B will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Porto B told João Tavares something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Porto B would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Porto B. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Porto B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Miguel Silva 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Trofim Melnichenko has come out of that comparison in the side, and Porto B have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Porto B could ask drops and the wages Vasco Sousa can ask rise.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jhojan De La Cruz has written the date down.
“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 Porto B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
“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.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Vasco Sousa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Porto B told Trofim Melnichenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Porto B will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Trofim Melnichenko has moved up it.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
7.95, 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Porto B 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Trofim Melnichenko 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.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cardoso Varela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
“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 Porto B, and it is not being withdrawn.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Vizela; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Martim Cunha is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Miguel Silva 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Evanilson is a Porto player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Torreense for Malcom 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Evanilson has, at Porto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The enquiry everybody at Porto was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Vizela paid $890.0K and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Mile Svilar 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Cláudio Ramos is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mile Svilar is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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 Leiria can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 28 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leiria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Leiria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu 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.
Nobody at Leiria 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.
34 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Mile Svilar 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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cláudio Ramos 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 William Gomes’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Porto needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leiria people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$2.2M on the table at Alverca. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Manu 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Jair Silva 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estrela da Amadora have kept their man, and Leiria go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leiria can pretend not to have heard.
Position 16 and 13 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leiria they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Pablo Fernández 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leiria has been clear about where Marrony stands, which is more than many ever get.
At 23 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.
Antoni Nikolov 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.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until João Teixeira signs something — a contract at Porto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 12 games at Leiria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Maga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Leiria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leiria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Portimonense in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Pablo Fernández has written the date down.
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.
Antef Tsoungui 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.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Porto told Dominik Prpić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Machado 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Farense scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.80 on the card, and the Leiria support went home talking about one name.
Squad25 Sep 2028
12 new faces, and Leiria are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together 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 Ivan is on it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leiria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Leiria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Alves 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.
10 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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Rodrigo Melro is in the works
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jordan Gabriel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leiria the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $573.8K — a club that wants Val Soares enough to be asked twice.
$550.0K on the table at Atlético CP. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Diego Lopes 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leiria has been clear about where Pablo Fernández stands, which is more than many ever get.
$10.8M was the most the club would pay and Maritimo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Porto asked and Maritimo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Famalicao paid $3.9M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leiria will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trofense have kept their man, and Leiria go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ivan 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.
Leiria have gone to Estoril Praia 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.
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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Leiria will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
In brief
The dugoutIvan has become a man the manager trusts
Pablo Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Jair Silva 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.
A loan enquiry to Sporting da Covilhã: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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 Christian Joel Sánchez is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marrony signs something — a contract at Leiria or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Porto have done the hard part with Varzim, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Belenenses waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Porto is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
8 new faces, and Porto are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together 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 Rúben Neves is on it.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Malcom
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $150.0K — a club that wants João Teixeira enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Porto is saying, and nobody at Leiria is enjoying the guessing.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Leiria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo have kept their man, and Leiria go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Leiria have made the call to Corinthians. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. William Gomes is a Porto player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Porto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Vitoria Guimaraes for Alberto 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.
Porto 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. William Gomes has, at Porto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Position 3, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Porto offered $7.9M; Braga 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.
William Gomes was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $49.6M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
11 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.
Three points for Porto, 2‑0 the final word against Maritimo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Rúben Neves was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Trofim Melnichenko 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.
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.