Marked for Mohamed Silmi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Leiria
Jakub Kamiński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market9 Aug 2027
As if he never left: Mohamed Silmi returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mohamed Silmi is a Leiria player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Moustafa Moustafa is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A move Mohamed Silmi 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. Mohamed Silmi is living that version at Leiria, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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 Leiria know it.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Leiria go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Sporting CP have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Lorensi, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Nermin Zolotić out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Farense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympique Akbou had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market21 Jun 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Francisco Moura wants continental football; whether Farense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Mohamed Silmi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Silmi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Farense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 21 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Nikola Gjorgjev 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.
Squad24 May 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Farense have had the benefit of it.
Market24 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Farense can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom24 May 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market24 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Mohamed Silmi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Silmi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Farense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Farense
Noah Botic 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.
Market24 May 2027
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
The dugout24 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Farense may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Farense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 May 2027
Noah Botic 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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 May 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Farense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Toni Herrero gets picked when it counts
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 Toni Herrero is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Nikola Gjorgjev damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Derick Poloni breaks a bone — 39 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Farense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Apr 2027
“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 Farense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ander Astralaga 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Farense
Nélson Oliveira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
Derick Poloni breaks a bone — 69 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Alex Pinto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Farense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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 Farense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Farense
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oskar Pietuszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for Farense against Porto B
0‑1 to Porto B, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sarpreet Singh, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Fonseca after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.