Marked for Rodrigo Correia
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
Mateus Santos 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wallace Oliveira, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Atlético CP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Santana 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
Atlético CP have made Bruno Ventura available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Atlético CP will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Atlético CP would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
$3.5M settles it between the clubs for Matheus Dias
Nacional have accepted the money. What Atlético CP do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Bruno Ventura has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Atlético CP is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Pedro Costa 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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 Atlético CP know it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateus Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Atlético CP asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market31 Jan 2028
He is 19, and nobody at Atlético CP signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Caio Santana
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nacional keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
$100.0K on the table at Sporting CP. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trofense have kept their man, and Atlético CP go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
André Ceitil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Belenenses: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wallace Oliveira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jan 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mafra had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market24 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sporting CP B people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Sporting CP B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Daniel Bragança 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Ramos, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paulo Iago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
When it matters, Lucas Anjos plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A new face in his position, and Daniel Bragança suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Sporting CP B have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Oct 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sporting CP B have 9 straight wins of it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A brace, and Souleymane Faye takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Souleymane Faye provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Víctor Guzmán, 21, steals the show — 8.00
Marked 8.00 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Daniel Bragança 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Sporting CP B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Muniz 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Souleymane Faye’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sporting CP B.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Rodrigo Correia
“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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Fernando Teixeira kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Bruno Ramos 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 Bruno Ramos is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2027
Daniel Bragança and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Sporting CP B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dias 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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
The big one: Marco 09 come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Sporting CP B will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paulo Cardoso, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sporting CP B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Something was said to David Moreira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sotiris Alexandropoulos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market11 Oct 2027
Sporting CP B have let the market know Rafael Besugo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sporting CP B have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Rodrigo Correia to Caldas has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sporting CP B with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sporting CP B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Sep 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 Sporting CP B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Afonso Lee is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
João Muniz 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paulo Cardoso, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The award goes to Daniel Bragança, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Rodrigo Dias has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sporting CP B 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mafra had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market23 Aug 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lusitano Évora waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sporting CP B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Samuel Justo goes up and wins it — 7.69
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.69 for the rest of it.
Market23 Aug 2027
Oliveirense come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sporting CP B did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad23 Aug 2027
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match21 Aug 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sporting CP B have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Daniel Bragança 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
João Muniz 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Caldas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sporting CP B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Eduardo Felicíssimo 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Three points for Sporting CP B, 3‑2 the final word against Amarante in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Faye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Francisco Silva
“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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The José Lino conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Fafe will make the call about José Lino this week. Sporting CP B have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 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 Sporting CP B can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Daniel Bragança 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Rodrigo Correia again, and this time the name on the line is Caldas. Sporting CP B are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Souleymane Faye 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Daniel Bragança has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sporting CP B.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and 1º Dezembro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sporting CP B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Chris Grombahi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market14 Jun 2027
The name of Guilherme Pires has come up in conversations Sporting CP B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Eduardo Felicíssimo 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Sporting CP B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Besugo 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Bruno Ramos 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Diogo Martins has his answer from Sporting CP B; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad14 Jun 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; Sporting CP B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
21 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
1‑5 to Maritimo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market22 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sporting CP B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Rodrigo Correia is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Eduardo Felicíssimo 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sporting CP B and Maritimo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The dugout22 Mar 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Nobody left the Sporting CP B dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
18 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.
Match1 Mar 2027
Every point is an argument now for Sporting CP B
Position 18 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Eduardo Felicíssimo 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match27 Feb 2027
Lucas Anjos scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Vizela, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 Mar 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; Sporting CP B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Fernando Teixeira to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Jan 2027
13 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” São João de Ver had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market25 Jan 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 Sporting CP B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rodrigo Dias 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moncef Zekri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Bruno Ramos 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 Bruno Ramos is on it.
The dugout25 Jan 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fernando Teixeira after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.