Marked for Jonathan Noriega
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leixões people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market11 Jun 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Leixões can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad11 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Leixões go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Leixões are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Benny has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Leixões 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Duarte Marques has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Asprilla will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
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Squad4 Jun 2029
Caio Secco 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Leixões
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Pinheiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: Felgueiras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Miguel Almeida. The answer from Leixões has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Dec 2028
Nowhere to hide for Leixões
0‑3 against Nacional, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market1 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Morufdeen Moshood will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Leixões
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Werton beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Leixões
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Leixões are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Leixões
Werton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Pinheiro 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.