2‑0 against Spartak Trnava, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Santiago Giménez was at the centre of the description.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Gomes did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
In brief
Player ratingsGabri Veiga was on a different afternoon to everybody else
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago Giménez provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ney 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.
9‑0 against Spartak Trnava, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
“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 The request is on a desk at Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Victor Froholdt provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Gomes did not need any: 8.43, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ney 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.
9 goals in one match, William Gomes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Porto and Spartak Trnava.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Trofim Melnichenko is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Veron wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pedro Marques was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Porto dressing room was either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Porto has been clear about where Martim Fernandes stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
7 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.
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.
William Gomes is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Famalicao in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Francisco Moura has written the date down.
1‑2 against FCSB. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Gomes did not need any: 8.42, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. William Gomes is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Pablo Rosario
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Porto 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.
Porto had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vitoria Guimaraes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Porto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Porto 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
The offer from Neman for Trofim Melnichenko 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and João Costa reports back to Porto with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Porto who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
7 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.
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
William Gomes, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.33
A mark of 8.33 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.3M — a club that wants Chuchu Ramírez enough to be asked twice.
Ney 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.
Porto 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Arouca tried to reorganise, Porto did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The offer from Udinese for Jakub Kiwior 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Porto have paid $8.3M for Dmytro Riznyk, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Porto asked and Shakhtar 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
William Gomes, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dmytro Riznyk has, at Porto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Porto and Shakhtar have settled on $8.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Porto asked and Austin FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Vitoria Guimaraes paid $15.6M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Arouca pay $13.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Victor Froholdt, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18
A mark of 8.18 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The phone has started ringing about Jakub Kiwior again, and this time the name on the line is Udinese. Porto are listening politely and promising nothing.
$14.3M on the table at Sheffield United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Al Nasr for Sultan Hussain 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Oussama Chita has, at Al Shabab, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Nashville SC 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.
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
The dugoutFaisal Omar asks for a word with the manager
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $23.8M has been paid because Ney is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Manchester United pay $31.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The offer from Aston Villa for Samu Aghehowa 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ney has, at Porto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Porto will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutGabri Veiga asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Al Shabab hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Al Shabab have gone to Nashville SC 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Mabkhout 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al Shabab are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Doğan Alemdar is in the works