“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 The request is on a desk at Sanjoanense, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.0K — a club that wants Ewerton enough to be asked twice.
Sanjoanense have gone to Paredes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Rodrigo Alonso 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.
Sanjoanense offered $270.0K; Marco 09 said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The name of Flamarion has come up in conversations Sanjoanense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sanjoanense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Sanjoanense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malcoon 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 is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Sanjoanense know which stage they are at.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Flamarion had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
He is going to Vitoria Guimaraes, the club has $3.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sanjoanense can pretend not to have heard.
Vitoria Guimaraes pay $3.2M, 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.
$480.0K on the table at Estrela da Amadora. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Paredes this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sanjoanense have had the benefit of 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 Sanjoanense can pretend not to have heard.
Vitinho 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Sanjoanense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sanjoanense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sanjoanense could ask drops and the wages Luís Ribeiro can ask rise.
Víctor Rofino 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 Flamarion 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 Sanjoanense know it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sanjoanense are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Sanjoanense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sanjoanense told Juan González something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Tiago Robalinho has written the date down.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rio Ave is saying, and nobody at Sanjoanense is enjoying the guessing.
Víctor Rofino 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 Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sanjoanense ran out of time with Santa Clara. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never 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 Sanjoanense 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 Sanjoanense, 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 Sanjoanense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Sanjoanense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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 Sanjoanense, another week without a signature from Luís Ribeiro.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sanjoanense can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Dec 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 0‑2 Carlos Pereira left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
In brief
Boardroom86% of the income goes out in wages at Sanjoanense
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Víctor Rofino 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Flamarion 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nuninho, and the manager let it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Flamarion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Add another name to the list: Torreense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ricardo Ribeiro. The answer from Sanjoanense has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sanjoanense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Marco 09 have kept their man, and Sanjoanense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jorge Martins has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.