Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tondela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rasmus Dalsgaard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tondela the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohamed Bamba 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tondela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑3 against Moreirense, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
4 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.
Mohamed Bamba 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.
Squad12 Jan 2043
Words at Tondela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Félix 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 phone has started ringing about Rui Araujo again, and this time the name on the line is Vizela. Tondela are listening politely and promising nothing.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tondela can tell you which week it ends in.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Fabio Fernandes obliged against Moreirense. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tondela.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tondela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Tondela and Casa Pia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
6 goals in one match, Fabio Fernandes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Tondela and Moreirense.
Marked 9.79 — 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tondela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Tondela hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tondela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Joseph Peter, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Ibrahim Rabbaj 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 held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Tondela answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with 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 Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Sep 2041
Hugo Félix 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marshall Burke has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Tondela have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tondela, another week without a signature from Henrique Borges.