The phone has started ringing about Dânio Djassi again, and this time the name on the line is São João de Ver. Portimonense are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everything agreed with Pacos de Ferreira, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Luan Peres 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.
Portimonense have made the call to Bologna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Portimonense will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutDânio Djassi knocks on the manager’s door
Portimonense have gone to Porto 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.
The name of Dânio Djassi has come up in conversations Portimonense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Portimonense had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Braga, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
João Reis 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.
Portimonense asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Tornich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
João Reis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 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.
“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.
Market31 May 2027
Marlon Júnior returns from a loan that gave him nothing
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
João Tornich 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.
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.
“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.
Vizela next, and one man in the Portimonense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Portimonense will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Leonardo Marcano may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.