Marked for Francisco Silva
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maritimo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Jan 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Maritimo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Jan 2030
No end in sight to Maritimo's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maritimo has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Rio Ave, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market28 Jan 2030
The chase for Mario Rivas ended with $740.0K changing hands and Leiria out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad28 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maritimo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Simo 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.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Simo in the eights
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jan 2030
Francisco Silva damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Market21 Jan 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maritimo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Jan 2030
“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 Maritimo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Jan 2030
Maritimo say no — this time
The offer from Farense for Gonzalo Pastor 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.
Match19 Jan 2030
The wait goes on for Maritimo
5 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.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The deal with Leiria is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Braga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Maritimo have gone to Penafiel with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad21 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Maritimo
Martim Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Silva
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maritimo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Leiria is saying, and nobody at Maritimo is enjoying the guessing.
Market14 Jan 2030
Martim Fernandes wants to know where this is going
“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 Maritimo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match12 Jan 2030
No end in sight to Maritimo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maritimo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Martim Tavares 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.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Door shut on Lucão
Maritimo asked and Gil Vicente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Luther Singh beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market14 Jan 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Maritimo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Martim Tavares
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
A masterclass from Simo
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Market
The shop window has Luther Singh in it
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Jul 2029
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maritimo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Raúl Alcaina
Casa Pia have accepted the money. What Maritimo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tondela have kept their man, and Maritimo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market30 Jul 2029
João Basso wants European nights
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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Too dear: Maritimo walk away from Sala
$540.0K was the most the club would pay and Estoril Praia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Paulo Henrique 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Too much change too quickly at Maritimo
7 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan move for Brenno is in the works
Maritimo have made the call to Vitória. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Alani
“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.