Marked for Rodrigo Vasconcelos
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Jul 2030
Only the photograph left for Armin Sivić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Armin Sivić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around De Graafschap the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Vasconcelos, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at De Graafschap would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at De Graafschap can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Jun 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Jun 2030
Armin Sivić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around De Graafschap they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Tim Braem knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at De Graafschap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
De Graafschap pull $14.4M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market3 Jun 2030
De Graafschap have made Madou Camara available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 May 2030
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market13 May 2030
Only the photograph left for Denzel Eijken
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denzel Eijken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around De Graafschap the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 May 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Vasconcelos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 May 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tim Braem may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Apr 2030
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Apr 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at De Graafschap is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Madou Camara 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 Madou Camara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
De Graafschap pull $14.4M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market8 Apr 2030
De Graafschap have made Ties Wieggers available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Jorge Fernandes 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
A 3‑2 win over Vizela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.94 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“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.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 8.54 — 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.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas Leaudais commits to Boavista for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Boavista
10 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boavista is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boavista this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market21 Aug 2028
Rodrigo Vasconcelos is 20, and Boavista have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Rui Pedro runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. João Gonçalves knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Aug 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Famalicao they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Gustavo Sá 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Boavista pay $510.0K, 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Three points for Famalicao, 4‑2 the final word against Chaves in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
One of those days for Gustavo Sá
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.44, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Aug 2028
João Nunes 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Gustavo Sá finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Famalicao have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.