Marco Moreno 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
“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 Penafiel know 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 Penafiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Madi Queta is on it.
Borja Sainz 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Porto, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Varela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Penafiel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Penafiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Gonçalo Negrão has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Porto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lusitano Évora runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Pepê is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Varela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 goals in 15 games at Marco 09 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Santiago Giménez has written the date down.
Marco Moreno 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 Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Rúben Alves.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Francisco Souza 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Francisco Souza Silva 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.
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 Gonçalo Negrão.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jose Neves on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 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.
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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Penafiel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Iano Simão is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Marco Moreno 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 Mar 2027
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iano Simão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Ricardo Schutte is on it.
Pacos de Ferreira next, and one man in the Penafiel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
4 goals in 6 games at Barakaldo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Penafiel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Borja Sainz 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 had been thinking. Willian 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 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.
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.
Vitoria Guimaraes 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Caraballo 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Penafiel pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Penafiel told Marco Moreno something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Jose Neves to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Penafiel know it.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Penafiel will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. José Caraballo has just signed for Penafiel, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel 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.
“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 Penafiel know it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Àlex Carbonell will call it something else in private.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Raúl Alcaina 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.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Penafiel can pretend not to have heard.
Marco Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jose Neves left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Penafiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Àlex Carbonell scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Penafiel close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
Add another name to the list: Fafe have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Raúl Alcaina. The answer from Penafiel has not changed — yet.
Marco Moreno 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.
Penafiel asked and Chaves said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Raúl Alcaina 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.
Penafiel asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
The dugout25 Jan 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.” Jose Neves chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Igor Stefanović is 40 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Raúl Alcaina
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Penafiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$19.0K on the table at Leixões. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Penafiel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leixões have kept their man, and Penafiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Penafiel can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Fafe have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Raúl Alcaina. The answer from Penafiel has not changed — yet.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Penafiel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Raúl Alcaina 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.
6 goals in one match, Max Svensson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Penafiel and Torreense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Penafiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Chaves. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
Valdir 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.
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Valdir has just signed for Penafiel, and for once the answer mattered.
Àlex Carbonell 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
At 18 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Max Svensson and Penafiel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davo 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.
Jhonatan 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.
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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Penafiel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Jose Neves chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Penafiel is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jose Neves after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Penafiel lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Vitor Ricardo
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.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gabriel Veron 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 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 André Silva has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Raúl Alcaina 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.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jose Neves after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juanda Fuentes provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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.
He is 23 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Souza Silva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Penafiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Penafiel are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 Penafiel 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Penafiel will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Penafiel, another week without a signature from Jhonatan Silva.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Madi Queta’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Penafiel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel 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.
15 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juanda Fuentes provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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 is 23 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davo 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.
Penafiel asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 18 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jose Neves on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Penafiel, another week without a signature from Goba Zakpa.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Penafiel will try not to make too much of it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Teddy Alloh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Penafiel, another week without a signature from Max Svensson.
The offer from Bayer Leverkusen for Samu Aghehowa 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 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.
Porto asked and Braga 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 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.
Defensor Sporting have accepted the money. What Porto do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Veron was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.