Marked for Simão Arede
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Felgueiras may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Max Thompson 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A move Riccardo Gnudi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Riccardo Gnudi is living that version at Felgueiras, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Felgueiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Gharbi 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market11 Oct 2027
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Marked 5.54, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Duarte Marques has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Felgueiras can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Léo Teixeira 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 Aug 2027
Words at Felgueiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michel Costa 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Afonso Freitas
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Pité stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pité and Felgueiras agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market2 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” João Cardoso has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Felgueiras.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Felgueiras pull $149.4K 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The Michel Costa story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michel Costa signs something — a contract at Felgueiras or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market2 Aug 2027
Nobody at Felgueiras has picked up the phone to Pité
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer from Académico de Viseu for Lucas Duarte 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Max Thompson in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Felgueiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Léo Teixeira 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Felgueiras signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Afonso Peixoto asks for a word with the manager
“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.