Marked for Callum Leacock
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 May 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Penafiel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 May 2031
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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Córdoba 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Apr 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Penafiel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Apr 2031
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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Àlex Carbonell 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Mar 2031
Àlex Carbonell damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market17 Mar 2031
Only the photograph left for Callum Leacock
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Callum Leacock will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Penafiel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Mar 2031
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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Córdoba 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
The manager makes an example of Joan Femenías
“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.
Match15 Mar 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Feb 2031
Gonçalo Negrão damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
A fracture rules Serkan Göksu out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penafiel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 Feb 2031
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.
Market17 Feb 2031
Only the photograph left for Callum Leacock
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Callum Leacock will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Penafiel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Feb 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2031
No end in sight to Penafiel's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Penafiel has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A fracture rules Serkan Göksu out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penafiel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Max Svensson takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Leandro Ribeiro gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leandro Ribeiro has just signed for Penafiel, and for once the answer mattered.
Market20 Jan 2031
Callum Leacock has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Penafiel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Callum Leacock has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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.
Match18 Jan 2031
Beaten 3‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match18 Jan 2031
Max Svensson among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 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 Estoril Praia.