Marked for Davi Santos
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maritimo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Raphael Guzzo 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Tejón 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
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.
The dugout26 Jul 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
Adrián Butzke 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 Adrián Butzke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
Weslley Brito hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maritimo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 23 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Adrián Butzke 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Martín Tejón 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Door shut on Kaique
Maritimo asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Gábor Szalai has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Real Sociedad have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Gomes, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Carlos Daniel asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maritimo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 May 2027
18 days out for Bryan Limbombe after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maritimo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Maxime Dominguez 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulo Henrique 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 dugout24 May 2027
Almeida 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
Davi Santos gets picked when it counts
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 Davi Santos is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maritimo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Apr 2027
48 days out for Bryan Limbombe after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maritimo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Maxime Dominguez 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulo Henrique 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 dugout26 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Davi Santos has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Maritimo 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.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The Martín Tejón rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Maritimo would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Romain Correia keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Maritimo say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Dec 2026
Tondela ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Rafael Fernandes out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maritimo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Maritimo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Maritimo are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Maritimo — 7.58
1 for Almeida, marked 7.58, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Martín Tejón 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.
Match16 Dec 2026
Davi Santos among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Davi Santos on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Maritimo and Tondela.
Match19 Dec 2026
Maritimo leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Torreense, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulo Henrique 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.