“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pacos de Ferreira can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pacos de Ferreira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gabriel Novaes 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.
28 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad29 May 2028
Pablo Lúcio 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rafa Oliveira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vlad is on it.
Lucas Carrizo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Lúcio 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 Pacos de Ferreira, another week without a signature from Miguel Luís.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Pacos de Ferreira has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pacos de Ferreira have no good answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pacos de Ferreira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nuno Cunha 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Lúcio 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Leixões leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hugo Lopes was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pacos de Ferreira dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Feirense next, and one man in the Pacos de Ferreira dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutRúben Fonseca has become a man the manager trusts
Sporting da Covilhã go through and Pacos de Ferreira go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pacos de Ferreira can pretend not to have heard.
Clau Mendes 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 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Pablo Lúcio 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Bisanz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pacos de Ferreira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pacos de Ferreira can pretend not to have heard.
The bid was some way short and Pacos de Ferreira did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Pacos de Ferreira until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Khalid Hachadi reports back to Pacos de Ferreira with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pacos de Ferreira hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pacos de Ferreira can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pacos de Ferreira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mamadou Maïga
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Éderson wants continental football; whether Benfica can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Benfica know it.
Pacos de Ferreira paid $130.0K and Benfica took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Benfica, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Clément Lenglet is on 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 Pacos de Ferreira, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Vitoria Guimaraes 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Santander is saying, and nobody at Pacos de Ferreira is enjoying the guessing.
Gabriel Novaes 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pacos de Ferreira know which stage they are at.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Dylan Patel is 18, and Pacos de Ferreira 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Simon Eriksson is in the works