“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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hasan Hüseyin Akınay has just signed for Casa Pia, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hasan Hüseyin Akınay and Casa Pia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Something was said to Selvi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 36 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Fernando Mendes could afford to be generous.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Sampayo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Rosas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casa Pia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. André Gomes 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Casa Pia can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Lucas Fernandes.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kélian Nsona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fernando Mendes after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadBruno Sampayo falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“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.
Jérémy Livolant and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Abdu Conté 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.
“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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Sousa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. João Rego did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Estrela da Amadora were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. João Rego 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Casa Pia, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Fernando Mendes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Casa Pia now know that too.
3 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
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 Abdu Conté is on it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.” Fernando Mendes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
SquadWords at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than André Geraldes
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. João Rego has come out of that comparison in the side, and Casa Pia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fernando Mendes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Bruno Sampayo 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Casa Pia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Casa Pia close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sporting CP is saying, and nobody at Casa Pia is enjoying the guessing.
Casa Pia asked and Tondela said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Abdu Conté 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.