Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elijah Benedict will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Portimonense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Portimonense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Carlinhos 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Diego Rodrigues 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.
“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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Abel 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 Elijah Benedict trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Out, 0‑3 to Vitoria Guimaraes, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Portimonense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sébastien Cibois has come out of that comparison in the side, and Portimonense have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
3 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.
Diego Rodrigues 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 22 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 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; Portimonense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Carlinhos 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.
“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 Portimonense, and 3 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leonardo Vonić provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leonardo Vonić. 2‑0 against AVS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. AVS tried to reorganise, Portimonense did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
SquadYanis da Rocha falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elijah Benedict will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Portimonense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Carlinhos 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Diego Rodrigues 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.
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Diego Rodrigues 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Thauan Lara 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dânio Djassi 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Portimonense, and 3 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Diego Rodrigues 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Portimonense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elijah Benedict will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Portimonense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
A brace, and Gal Kranjčič takes the afternoon — 8.15
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gal Kranjčič provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Dânio Djassi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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.
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.
Diego Rodrigues 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 22 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 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.
Carlinhos 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Dânio Djassi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dânio Djassi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Portimonense have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The name of Pedro Santos has come up in conversations Portimonense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Portimonense, and 1 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dânio Djassi did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Académico de Viseu for André Picornell 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.
“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; Portimonense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Carlinhos 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Carlinhos has improved at 34, 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.
“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 Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Diego Rodrigues 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.
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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Portimonense will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Portimonense
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.
Carlinhos 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ibrahima Ba has improved at 24, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The name of Pedro Santos has come up in conversations Portimonense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Santos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Portimonense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Portimonense know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lusitânia Lourosa pay $700.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Marques is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The name of Elijah Benedict has come up in conversations Portimonense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Portimonense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Kevin Méndez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Portimonense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Carlinhos 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.
In brief
SquadMorten Thorsby falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Diego Rodrigues 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elijah Benedict trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
86% of the income goes out in wages at Portimonense
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Carlinhos 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.63 on the card, and the Portimonense support went home talking about one name.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Rafael Mota
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rafael Mota has come out of that comparison in the side, and Portimonense have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Portimonense 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.
6 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Feirense? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Dânio Djassi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 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 Portimonense 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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Portimonense deserved better, and so did he.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
87% of the income goes out in wages at Portimonense
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sébastien Cibois has come out of that comparison in the side, and Portimonense have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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 Dânio Djassi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Carlinhos 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Portimonense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
5 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dânio Djassi did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elijah Benedict and Portimonense agree another 3 years.
“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; Portimonense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dânio Djassi 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Carlinhos 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.
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.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Portimonense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Feirense paid $1.2M and Portimonense took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Morten Thorsby 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Carlinhos's mistake
Diego Rodrigues 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 3‑2 win over Pacos de Ferreira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Portimonense can tell you which week it ends in.
Dânio Djassi 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 phone has started ringing about Lagartinho again, and this time the name on the line is Estrela da Amadora. Portimonense are listening politely and promising nothing.
0‑1 to Alverca, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis da Rocha 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.
In brief
Boardroom85% of the income goes out in wages at Portimonense
The phone has started ringing about Midana Cassamá again, and this time the name on the line is Chaves. Portimonense are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Carlinhos 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Portimonense can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Morten Thorsby 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Kevin Méndez 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 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Portimonense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Portimonense will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tiago Mamede has agreed terms with Vitoria Guimaraes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Carlinhos 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dânio Djassi signs something — a contract at Portimonense or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Portimonense training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amílcar Silva, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Morten Thorsby'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.
Marked 4.65. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
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.
Morten Thorsby 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Kevin Méndez 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.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Shedrach Ebite, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Méndez 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 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.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Midana Cassamá
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Portimonense 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Diego Rodrigues provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Portimonense know 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diego Rodrigues 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morten Thorsby 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Kevin Méndez decided nobody was going anywhere. Sporting CP B had no time left to answer.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dânio Djassi did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Méndez 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.
A 2‑1 win over Sporting CP B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 22 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Diego Rodrigues was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Kevin Méndez at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Portimonense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dânio Djassi did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Rodrigues is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Méndez 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑3 against Lusitânia Lourosa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Portimonense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Morten Thorsby 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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomThe numbers do not look good at Portimonense
MarketThe window shut and Tiago Mamede is still in the building
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.
Oliveirense will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Portimonense were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Tiago Mamede takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tiago Mamede provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dânio Djassi did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Carlinhos 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.89 beside his name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dânio Djassi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from AVS for Midana Cassamá 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Rodrigues is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Dânio Djassi 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Pinto has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Portimonense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Portimonense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Carlinhos 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 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 Portimonense know it.
“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 Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Kevin Méndez 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 Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edney 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 Elijah Benedict trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Portimonense, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Palacios 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.
Carlinhos 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front 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 Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Santi García 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Porto? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Murilo Souza 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
Zé Carlos 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.
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 Zé Carlos.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Santi García 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Murilo Souza. 1‑0 against Vitoria Guimaraes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The name of Jarleysom has come up in conversations Portimonense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Amílcar 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.
“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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Murilo Souza 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gil Vicente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jovan Milošević did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Murilo Souza 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi García 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gil Vicente, another week without a signature from Rafael Brito.
Dânio Djassi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Santi García 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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joao Oliveira is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nuno Castro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lucas Soares is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Carlinhos 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sébastien Cibois, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Benedict 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 Portimonense pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Portimonense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Murilo Souza 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 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.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Esgaio 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 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santi García signs something — a contract at Gil Vicente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A season-long audition: Famalicao still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Gil Vicente's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Two goals and a mark of 8.03 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 about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Santi García 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santi García. 3‑1 against AVS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
The offer from AVS for Santi García 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.
Murilo Souza 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Weverson wants continental football; whether Gil Vicente can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi García 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 Gil Vicente 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.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Portimonense can tell you which week it ends in.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Júlio Gil has just signed for Portimonense, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Portimonense know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portimonense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Portimonense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edney 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.
Murilo Souza 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi García 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lorenzo Fernández has just signed for Gil Vicente, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Weverson and Gil Vicente agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Santi García 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portimonense can pretend not to have heard.
Carlinhos 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Portimonense can tell you which week it ends in.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Willem II will make the call about Elijah Benedict this week. Portimonense have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.