Marked for Caio Araújo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Vizela
Antonio Gomis 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Vizela
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ângelo Neto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Alfred Caicedo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Ângelo Neto knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ângelo Neto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Garraty has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Vizela 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vizela know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market19 Apr 2027
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Vizela could get for him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vizela. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vizela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Vizela
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
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 Antony Medrano is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Luís Rocha knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luís Rocha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Miguel Pires story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miguel Pires signs something — a contract at Vizela or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market12 Apr 2027
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Vizela money.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
The paperwork begins on Christian
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Santos have done the hard part with Krasnodar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market14 Dec 2026
Santos pay Shakhtar $17.9M for a proper upgrade
Shakhtar did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $17.9M for Eguinaldo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
$16.9M was the most the club would pay and Shakhtar 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
São Paulo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Santos did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Santos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Santos right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Eguinaldo arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Eguinaldo has, at Santos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Santos had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Santos make their move for Maik
$3.2M on the table at Sport Recife. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Santos
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Santos are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Santos
Álvaro Barreal 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Santos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodinei 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erik de los Santos and Santos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Rony gets it from the manager
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with São Paulo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bruno Lopes chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.