“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trabzonspor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabinho 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.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ernest Muçi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Okay Yokuşlu is somebody else's player now, and $160.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Trabzonspor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Trabzonspor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Trabzonspor close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 20 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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
Profesor has improved at 26, 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.
$19.8M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Trabzonspor, the club has $19.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriel Índio has, at Farense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Miguel Menino has improved at 24, 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ruben Cunha after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutCláudio Falcão dropped after a run of poor form
Farense did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $19.8M for Profesor, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$5.3M settles it between the clubs for Lucas Arcanjo
Vitória have accepted the money. What Trabzonspor do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Profesor is living that version at Trabzonspor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ernest Muçi 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Paradou had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Farense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nikola Gjorgjev was one of the reasons people came, and $2.4M does not replace that by itself.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Farense have accepted the money. What Trabzonspor do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Trabzonspor asked and Basaksehir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Trabzonspor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sidny Lopes Cabral and Trabzonspor agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
In brief
SquadFabinho falls out with a teammate over standards
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympique Akbou had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Girona for Profesor 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Farense can pretend not to have heard.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
The shirt still fits. José Melro is back at Farense, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Profesor has improved at 26, 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yannick Semedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Trabzonspor have gone to Farense 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Trabzonspor heard it as anything else.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Trabzonspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabinho 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trabzonspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Farense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Denis Huseinbašić 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 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hernâni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Farense can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
Farense asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Farense have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Farense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The phone has started ringing about Joseph Nduquidi again, and this time the name on the line is Olympique Akbou. Farense are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Austria Wien have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody at Farense 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Barbosa signs something — a contract at Farense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Farense enter the window
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Profesor
The dugoutThe manager makes João Resende a promise
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Farense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
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.
“I watch every Farense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Leixões runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Denis Huseinbašić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Barbosa signs something — a contract at Farense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Menino is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Gjorgjev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Farense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Denis Huseinbašić 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 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.
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 Toni Herrero is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Seifeddine Jaziri has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Farense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Farense, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 João Resende is on it.
Position 9 on 45 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
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.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ruben Cunha could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Farense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Denis Huseinbašić 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Farense, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ruben Cunha to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Farense told Denis Huseinbašić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ruben Cunha to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
He is 21 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.
A 1‑0 win over Sporting CP B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
0‑3 against Felgueiras, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Farense can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio Falcão 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Farense pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ruben Cunha after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Farense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ruben Cunha left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marco Matias.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Farense told Cláudio Falcão something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Farense 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The deal that would have taken Diego Dorregaray to Rio Ave has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Farense with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ruben Cunha, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Denis Huseinbašić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ruben Cunha after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Atletico Goianiense have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Farense pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Farense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Braga is saying, and nobody at Farense is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Farense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oliveirense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Farense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Farense had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zamalek, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Gabriel Barbosa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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 name of Frederick Reuter has come up in conversations Farense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Penarol have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonardo Mota is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Cláudio Falcão 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio Falcão 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Farense told Gonçalo Silva something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Farense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Out, 1‑2 to Estrela da Amadora, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Profesor. 1‑0 against Académico de Viseu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Farense.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ruben Cunha, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
The offer from Santos for Gabriel Barbosa 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luquinhas commits to Farense for another 3 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ruben Cunha was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Farense dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cláudio Falcão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gonçalo Silva 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.
Half the programme played, position 7, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cláudio Falcão wants continental football; whether Farense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Farense told Yannick Semedo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alex Pinto 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Gjorgjev, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ruben Cunha chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Farense will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cláudio Falcão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Profesor. 1‑0 against Maritimo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Farense told Profesor something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ruben Cunha, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nermin Zolotić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Sporting CP B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ruben Cunha could afford to be generous.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Toni Herrero is on it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. João Resende scored in the 85th minute, Feirense had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Farense took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
6 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio Falcão 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ruben Cunha after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Farense has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cláudio Falcão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutToni Herrero dropped after a run of poor form
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Farense can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ruben Cunha left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutCláudio Falcão asks for a word with the manager
Gabriel Barbosa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cláudio Falcão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Something was said to Marco Matias and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
11 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Farense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Marked 7.33. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ruben Cunha was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Farense dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Profesor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Penafiel next, and one man in the Farense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Farense will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Farense have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.18, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Farense until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The bid was some way short and Farense did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Profesor 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vancouver Whitecaps have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Minute 87, against Leiria, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Alex Pinto 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Add another name to the list: University of Pretoria have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about João Resende. The answer from Farense has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Farense asked and Monterrey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hernâni. 2‑0 against Académico de Viseu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Farense know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Colchester United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Liverpool Montevideo is saying, and nobody at Farense is enjoying the guessing.
Cláudio Falcão 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.
Profesor was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $8.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
$8.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veracruz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Veracruz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Farense, the club has $8.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Veracruz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Columbus Crew, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Farense have done the hard part with Veracruz, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Teixeira has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Diogo Costa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Borges has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joao Silva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Miguel Menino 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.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Farense are still learning each other
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veracruz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Veracruz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Sevilla for Uriel Ochoa 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.
The offer went to Sport Huancayo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universidad Catolica have kept their man, and Veracruz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Farense have gone to Veracruz 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.
The offer from Pacos de Ferreira for Leonardo Oliveira 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cláudio Falcão wants continental football; whether Farense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nermin Zolotić 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.
The name of João Resende has come up in conversations Farense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio Falcão 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.
Farense asked and La Equidad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veracruz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Veracruz hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Daniel Rodriguez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Arteaga 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Veracruz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.