The Alverca Gazette
Market16 Jul 2029
Kauan Kelvin asks to leave Alverca
“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 targets16 Jul 2029
The paperwork begins on Yann Kitala
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Alverca have done the hard part with Vizela, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market16 Jul 2029
Alverca say no — this time
The offer from La Equidad for Jaider Cortes 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A move Denzel Eijken 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. Denzel Eijken is living that version at Alverca, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market16 Jul 2029
Davide Baroncioni has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alverca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
Alverca to lose Óscar Torrellas for free
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Óscar Torrellas has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Alverca
Zé Rafael 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Real improvement from Eduardo Ferreira at Alverca
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eduardo Ferreira is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Gabriel Barros has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
- Boardroom Alverca beat the market to Antoine Wenck from Rio Ave
- Transfer targets Alverca rebuffed over Arnaud Bodart
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Carles Soria