Marked for Alexandre Rosado
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Sep 2035
“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.
Market17 Sep 2035
Mark Gomizelj has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alashkert they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Sep 2035
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Nduka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Pim Saathof and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edgar Sarkisov and Alashkert agree another 3 years.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“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 Alashkert know it.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
Caio Henrique has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Market17 Sep 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kajally Drammeh signs something — a contract at Alashkert or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
Pim Saathof 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 Pim Saathof trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jul 2034
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estrela da Amadora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Jul 2034
Dominic Sadi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Estrela da Amadora they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Jul 2034
“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 Estrela da Amadora, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jul 2034
André Miranda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2034
Estrela da Amadora asked and Braga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matis Carvalho
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estrela da Amadora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Mar 2034
João Palhinha 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Brandon Llana 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
5 new faces, and Estrela da Amadora are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market13 Mar 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Mar 2034
João Gabriel 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 Estrela da Amadora, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout13 Mar 2034
Miguel Pinto 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 Miguel Pinto is on it.
The dugout13 Mar 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Rosado, and the manager let it.
Market13 Mar 2034
The clock does Brandon Llana’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Estrela da Amadora could ask drops and the wages Brandon Llana can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Dec 2033
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estrela da Amadora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Dec 2033
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.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
“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.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Manuel Goncalves and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Dec 2033
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Words at Estrela da Amadora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Gabriel 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 dugout19 Dec 2033
“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 ratings19 Dec 2033
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Dec 2033
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.